It’s been five months since Andy Murray’s played a competitive tennis match after taking a leave of absence from tennis due to a serious hip injury. In the meantime, he’s been slowly getting back into shape. So what can we expect from last year’s world No. 1 on Tuesday?
While 2017 has been a fairytale year for vintage players Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, both Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic have battled injuries — first simultaneous elbow issues earlier this year, and then more serious hip (Murray) and knee (Djokovic) problems that manifested into the summer season.
On the advice of doctors, both rivals took the rest of the year off after Wimbledon. Murray won only one ATP 500 title at the beginning of the year (Dubai) while Djokovic won two ATP 250’s (Doha and Eastbourne). And the two have dropped out of the Top 10 with Jack Sock’s win at the Paris Masters on Sunday, with Murray dropping down to his worst ranking since 2008, No. 16, with Djokovic declining to No. 12. Oh, and the two 30 year-old dads also took the time off to prepare for their second baby, with Djokovic’s born last September, and Murray’s second daughter to be born sometime soon.
It’s been five months since we’ve seen Murray compete in the sport, having lost his last match, in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon to Sam Querry. He withdrew from tennis shortly afterwards and has been nursing the hip injury that has plagued him all year, opting out of having surgery and instead, relying on holistic approaches to heal the ailment.
But for the last three weeks, according to his brother Jamie, he’s been seriously training — and training hard — for his charity match against Roger Federer that will take place in Scotland on Nov. 7, under the direction of fitness trainer Matt Little and physio Shane Annun. He’s been sparring with various hitting partners and taking gyrotonic classes to help heal the hip. But how ready is he?
The Scot has posted videos from practice sessions on Instagram. His brother says he’s in good shape. “I hit with him the other week and he was hitting the ball absolutely fine,” said Jaime to Express, “and he was slowly building up his movement.”
His practice sessions have been going so well, that he was even considering staying signed on for the Paris Masters event just last week, although there is still concern that the hip may now be a chronic case of arthritis.
Next: Each State's Sports Mt Rushmore
The exhibition match will take place at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland. But don’t worry, you can catch the entire event for free, live on Facebook at Andy Murray LIVE! The match starts at 7:30 pm, Glasgow time, 2:30 pm Eastern Standard Time.
The exhibition will be a great opportunity to assess the condition that Andy Murray is in. He is planning to return to tennis competition in the new year.