Andy Murray does not expect to play tennis in the American hard court summer as he looks to bide his time to ensure he’s fully prepared for a return to singles.
The world No. 1 was toying with the idea of making a singles comeback for the final Grand Slam of the year but he has now cooled talk of such an immediate return.
Murray has enjoyed great success during the grass-court season, winning a men’s doubles title alongside Feliciano Lopez at Queen’s, while he is still going strong with Serena Williams in the mixed doubles at Wimbledon and it was hoped he would be back on the singles court sooner rather than later.
But while Murray believes he’s made the ‘right’ decision to play doubles this summer, he is now far from convinced his body will be ready for the rigours of singles by the US Open.
‘I think it’s pretty unlikely just in terms of timing,’ Murray said after winning his latest mixed doubles match alongside Williams 7-5 6-3 against 14th seeds Fabrice Martin and Raquel Atawo.
‘I spoke to my team a bit about that yesterday. Just a lot of stuff I need to get done physically, get myself stronger.
‘The amount of work I need to do on the court to get ready for singles, the amount of work I need to put in off the court to get myself strong enough to play best-of-five sets, it’s still quite a way away unfortunately.
‘I would love to play. I need to look, like, pretty long-term with this. I don’t want to be having to go through another big operation in a few years’ time. I want to make sure the operation I’ve had lasts for as long as possible. To give it the best chance, I need to make sure that, I’m physically, you know, really strong before I get back on the singles court.
‘I don’t know exactly [when I’ll be back]. I said this at the beginning of the grass season: I don’t want to put a timeframe on it. You guys want a timeframe. I can’t give you an exact timeframe because I don’t know how long it’s going to take for me to physically get to that level.
‘I know some people might like it to have taken five months or six months, but it’s going to take more time than that, unfortunately. Whether that’s nine months or 12 months or 18 months, I don’t know. I’ll do my best to make it as soon as I can. I can’t give an exact timeframe on this. It’s tough.’
Asked if it was his intention to return to best of three sets tennis prior to the US Open, he added: ‘No. Right now it’s not, no.
‘I don’t know [if I’ll keep playing doubles]. I want to try to prepare to try and get ready for singles. If I’m able to train the way that I need to off the court and still maintain kind of, I guess, my performance on it in doubles, I would consider that.
‘But, you know, also, yeah, I don’t know if I want to go over to the States to play doubles for four or five weeks. I’m not sure. I’m not sure yet. I’ll decide on that probably when the tournament’s done and sit down with my team.
‘But having felt how I felt these last few weeks, I’m positive about the future, so therefore I’m going to train properly to try and give singles a go. But that will take time.
‘I don’t know. I might take a break. I might train and play doubles. I might just train for singles. I really don’t know.’
