ANDY MURRAY celebrated a thrilling comeback win by revealing he WILL play at Wimbledon.
Half a year after he could barely tie his shoelaces up due to crippling pain, the Scot confirmed his recovery from hip surgery with victory in the the men’s doubles at the Fever-Tree Championships.
He and Spaniard Feliciano Lopez impressively beat the Colombian top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 7-6 6-3 at Queen’s.
Murray said afterwards: “I feel like I’m going to continue to progress. It was fun and enjoyable.
“Last year when I came on the court, I was quite emotional and stuff, because I hadn’t played for a long time.
“I have zero discomfort in my hip after the match. Like nothing. And if I had done this last year, you know I’d be here aching, throbbing, and feel bad the next day.
“I’ll just keep pushing and see how it goes. But I feel optimistic about the future.
“I don’t know how long it will take to get to that level, but, you know, hopefully not too long.”
Yet last Christmas the Scot could hardly even walk his dogs for long as his career looked over.
But thanks to career-saving surgery in London 143 days ago, Murray made a victorious comeback in the first round of the men’s doubles at the Fever-Tree Championships.
The 32-year-old added ‘It was brilliant. I enjoyed it out there a lot.
“I was a little bit slow at the beginning but got better as the match went on.
“I’m very fortunate to be back playing tennis once again.
“I absolutely love playing on this court. It’s a brilliant place to play tennis.
“I felt quite relaxed in the build-up to it but as we were walking to the court I said I was starting to feel a little bit nervous now.
“Maybe that showed a bit at the beginning but that’s what you want when you’re playing tennis. You want the nerves, you want the butterflies in your stomach and I had that.”
Murray, who has had a metal hip implant, showed no sign of discomfort with his serving action.
And even when he fell over in the second set, he got up straightaway and didn’t wince.
Murray, who hopes to play singles by the end of the year, will fancy his chances on this form of an extended run at this event.
The former world No.1 and Lopez won’t know their next opponent until later on today because the match between Brits Dan Evans and Ken Skupski versus Felix Auger-Aliassime and Alex de Minaur was put back.
There is, of course, still the potential of an explosive semi-final tomorrow (Saturday) against his older brother Jamie should both siblings continue winning.
