ANDY Murray has ruled out playing singles at the US Open later this month. While the Scot said he had done “fine” in his long-awaited singles return at the Cincinnati Masters, which ended in a 6-4, 6-4 first round defeat to Richard Gasquet of France, he has declined the option of being considered for a Flushing Meadows wild card as he feels his match conditioning is still “quite far away from where I would like to be". Consequently, his involvement in New York from August 26 onwards will be limited to doubles and the practice courts.
After that, there remains a possibility that the 32-year-old could be spotted in singles action immediately after the US Open at a Glasgow tournament named the Murray Trophy in his family’s honour, but timings are tight as he is entered into Asian-based tournaments in Zhuhai and Beijing immediately afterwards. He is also pondering whether to enter the singles at next week’s Winston-Salem Open but Murray feels it could be another six months or so before we see the best of him again following January’s hip resurfacing procedure.
"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 said. "But [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."
"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."
"I think nine to 12 months after the operation is when I would expect to be getting close to the best that I can be physically - and speed wise I should be fully recovered by 12 months," he said, in a separate interview with BBC Sport. "My speeds have improved, but they are quite linear speeds, and repeatable tests, whereas on a match court you are changing direction and having to react to balls and anticipate.
"The way to get that back is by playing matches. You can hit as many speed targets as you like, but once you get out on court it's very different. I don't feel I was very slow out on the court [against Gasquet], but I was not as quick as I would have liked."
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