Less than five months after announcing that he may have played his last ever match, Andy Murray made his much-anticipated return to competitive action Thursday when he stepped on to court in the Fever-Tree Championships at Queen’s Club, London.
Murray, 32, joined forces with Feliciano Lopez of Spain in the first round of the men’s doubles, taking on top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah of Colombia.
Murray underwent resurfacing surgery to his right hip on Jan. 29, an operation which he said left him with “a metal hip”.
Having been in pain for the past two years, Murray said in March that he was pain-free and stepped up his practice sessions in the past month, before announcing he would be returning, initially in doubles, at Queen’s.
He plans to play doubles with Brazilian Marcelo Melo in next week’s Nature Valley International in Eastbourne and then doubles at Wimbledon, with an as-yet unnamed partner.
Should everything go well over this week and the rest of the grass-court summer, Murray expects to begin focusing his training towards singles and could yet return to the singles court later this year.
“I would imagine after here I’ll get a better idea of where I’m at,” Murray said at Queen’s this week.
“I’ll still need time to build up again and do another block of rehab and training to try and get myself in that position.”