Tennis: Andy Murray aims to become a top singles player again

Andy Murray was unable to grab a win upon his return to singles action, he was defeated 6-4, 6-4 by Richard Gasquet in the first round of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Cincinnati. The three-time Grand Slam champion admitted that he was still far from his best, but added that he had just two weeks of dedicated practice ahead of his first singles match after a seven-month injury layoff. He has played a few doubles and mixed doubles matches in the past weeks and he will do so at the US Open as well. 

"I think nine to twelve months after the operation is when I would expect to be getting close to the best that I can be physically - and speed wise I should be fully recovered by 12 months," Murray said. His second hip surgery was in January, so we should expect to see Murray closer to his best next year. He is constantly testing his speed around the court in training, and the numbers are slowly improving. 

"They have improved, but they are quite linear speeds, and repeatable tests, whereas on a match court you are changing direction and having to react to balls and anticipate," Murray said. "The way to get that back is by playing matches. You can hit as many speed targets as you like, but once you get out on court it's very different. I don't feel I was very slow out on the court today, but I was not as quick as I would have liked." 

Andy Murray has not yet decided whether he will play at the Winston-Salem next week, but he has already said that he will play in Zhuhai and Beijing after the US Open and maybe even Shanghai if fitness allows. "I'm certainly not going to go backwards from here," Murray added. "Every time I've practised singles so far, it's all just been practice sets because I was trying to get back on the match court. But once you actually get out there and start playing you realise, 'Wow,' my return needs to get better; I need to improve my serve. I need to get myself on the practice court and work on those things specifically." 

Andy Murray is currently 22/1 at PaddyPower Sportsbook to win the Australian Open in January 2020.