Playing for the first time since post-Australian Open hip surgery, Andy Murray teamed up with Feliciano Lopez to oust No. 1 seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 7-6(5), 6-3 at the Fever-Tree Championships on Thursday evening.
Unsurprisingly, Murray was pleasantly surprised by his performance.
“I learned quite a bit tonight,” the 32-year-old Scot admitted. “Like, I sort of expected to be the worst player on the court tonight and to not feel particularly good on the court. I was prepared to feel that way, which was probably the case in the first set. But then I think I started to play better in the second and started to serve a bit better, see the returns a little bit better and things.
“I have zero discomfort in my hip. Like, after the match…nothing. And if I had done this last year, I’d be here aching, throbbing, and feel bad the next day.
So I’ll just keep pushing and see how it goes. But I feel optimistic about the future. I don’t know how long it will take to get to that level, but hopefully not too long.”
The immediate future will include doubles at Wimbledon, where Murray will play with Pierre-Hugues Herbert. Following many days of speculation among the media members at Queen’s Club, the former world No. 1 announced it at his post-match press conference.
“I’m playing with Pierre-Hugues Herbert; yeah, that’s my plan,” Murray revealed. “It’s a long story, really. Long story…but, yeah, basically my coach saw him a little while ago and told him that I might be playing doubles at Wimbledon. He had said to my coach he wasn’t going to be playing doubles at Wimbledon. He was going to concentrate on singles at the French Open and Wimbledon, so he was not going to be playing doubles.
And then, yeah, I can’t remember exactly how long, but a couple of weeks ago…I’m assuming he spoke with his team and thought, you know, it might be a nice thing to do. And that was kind of how it came about.”
Herbert is a four-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, with five career final appearances.
good pick of a partner