Andy Murray’s first singles match since the Australian Open ended in a 6-4, 6-4 defeat against Richard Gasquet in round one of the Western & Southern Open on Monday afternoon.
Murray, who was playing for the first time since hip resurfacing surgery, did not feel any pain but understand showed signs of rust throughout the contest. The former world No. 1 dropped serve three times while serving at only 54 percent. Murray got a break back midway through the first set, but Gasquet maintained an upper hand the rest of the way to prevail in one hour and 36 minutes.
Afterward, Murray announced that he will not play singles at the U.S. Open.
“We were hoping to maybe hold a wild card until a little bit closer to the time to see how I feel and get some matches hopefully and a bit of practice, “ Murray explained. “[It was] a decision I made with my team. I didn’t want to take a wild card today because I just didn’t know how I was going to feel after a match. I felt like I wanted to be fair for me to maybe try and get a couple of matches in before making a decision like that.
“If I would have taken the wild card and then not played, then I would have been getting loads of questions about my hip and, ‘Why has he turned it down? Is something wrong? What’s the problem?’” Murray said. “It was more likely that I was not going to [play], because although I did fine in the match today, physically, my legs felt quite heavy at the end of the match and that’s probably not going to change a whole lot in a couple of weeks.”
The 32-year-old Scot won in doubles with Feliciano Lopez on Tuesday and plans to play both men’s doubles and mixed doubles in New York. He is still contemplating a singles entry at next week’s Winston-Salem Open.
pain free is what matters right now