Judy Murray: 'Back in January, we thought Andy's career could be over'
After an incredible run in the second part of 2016 when he caught and passed Novak Djokovic to finish the season as world no. 1, Andy Murray struggled big time to repeat that in the next season. Humble and dedicated Glasgow native had the desire to stay among the best players in the world in 2017 as always last ten years but his body refused to follow that pace, struggling more and more with a hip injury and missing all the action after Wimbledon. Undergoing a hip surgery in January 2018, Andy competed in only six ATP tournaments between Queen's and Shenzhen in a desperate try to make a return and play injury-free again, unable to find the form and send the pain away. Determined to extend career and make a comeback, Murray underwent another surgery in January 2019, having a metal cap placed at the top of his femur that finally put the pain away, working on a comeback ever since and deciding to enter the doubles draw at Queen's with Feliciano Lopez.
As we all know, that turned into one of the most beautiful stories of the season so far, with Murray and Lopez winning four matches to go all the way and claim the title, the first for Andy in doubles since Tokyo 2011! The Briton was thrilled with the fact there was no pain in the hip whatsoever, covering his side of the court nicely and showing good signs of old form on serve and at the net. Andy will be in action this week in Eastbourne as well and has opted to play Wimbledon with Pierre-Hugues Herbert too, testing his body in doubles encounters ahead of possible singles return this summer or fall. Mother Judy was there to cheer for her son and she was mighty relieved with how everything went, saying Andy doesn't feel pain anymore and describing the toughest moments of his tennis career that could have sent him into early retirement.
"It was as stressful as ever," Judy Murray said. "I'm not sure anybody expected him to get through to the final and then, of course, you get close and his competitive instincts kick in and almost had that attitude of 'I'm not leaving this court without winning'. He had that right from the start, and so did Feliciano, it was remarkable to see them lift the trophy at the end, considering that in January we thought it could be all over. Andy struggled to tie his shoelaces, put his socks on, chase after the kids. It affected his whole life and of course, there was just the day to day absolute grind of the rehab that he was having to do, which was incredibly rigorous and probably incredibly boring and monotonous.
He hasn't had any pain in his hip for some time now, since he got over the wound from the operation, and that's a great sign, so it is a question of building it up and seeing just what it will allow him to do in the longer term, but the signs were incredibly encouraging. His goal is to get back to playing singles but he's not ready for that yet. He only had four or five practice sets before going into Queens in the doubles so he hasn't played anything where he's had to cover the whole court but the signs are good. I think over the summer he'll continue to build up and hopefully be ready to play singles in the autumn."
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2XaJTpE
No comments