Andy Murray who accepted a wildcard on Thursday to continue his singles comeback in the Shanghai Masters next month – says his recovery from hip surgery has been “brilliant so far”.
and he expects to be in good shape for the Australian Open in January.
That was where he departed in tears eight months ago before resorting to surgery, and he hopes to return to Melbourne via the new-format Davis Cup finals in Madrid in November, or even the ATP Cup, which starts the Australian season in January.
Murray, who turned 32 in May and returned in June by celebrating an unexpected doubles triumph at Queen’s Club alongside Feliciano López, was talking at the west London club to announce a deal with TRR, which is providing him with a new collagen supplement that supports joint and bone health.
“Now I don’t have any limitations on what I can’t do,” Murray said of his rehab process.
“I am certainly still a little bit slow in terms of where I would like to get to.
I’m thinking that in the next four or five months that is going to get better.
“The initial stages of the rehab were unbelievably slow.
There were a lot of limitations. Just getting back to walking takes time and the exercises were incredibly basic but after six to eight weeks I was doing a lot of stuff.
I was playing golf again and that was only eight to 10 weeks after surgery – so it has been brilliant so far.”
As for winning the doubles at Queen’s, he said: “It was pretty unexpected to be honest. The way the last year had gone, I wasn’t sure if I was definitely going to play.
It went really well, I had a great time with Feli and it was one of the more fun weeks I have had on a tennis court.”
Murray started using collagen “around the time I started having trouble with my hip, which went on for a long time”. He said:
“I spoke with the nutritionist I work with to see if there was anything I could do to delay the possibility of me having problems with other joints.
When I was younger I didn’t give it as much attention as I should I have.
He worked with nutritionists to develop a product that will benefit me in the long term, not just when I am playing but also afterwards, because I would like to avoid having another operation if I can.”
