SCOTTISH tennis star Andy Murray has said he is pleased with the progress he has made since major hip resurfacing surgery in 2019.
The 36-year-old picked up two back-to-back ATP Challenger titles this year before a heartbreaking defeat in the second round of Wimbledon to Stefanos Tsitsipas.
He was forced to pull out of this year’s Cincinnati Open, a tournament he has won twice before, with abdominal strain.
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Despite his injury struggles though, Murray said he is generally pleased with how things have gone since the operation on his hip.
In an interview with The Guardian, Murray said: “Obviously I’d like to be doing better. I would like to be ranked higher.
“I’d like to have had more runs at the bigger events and everything. But also, I have to try at times, you have to keep things in perspective. I’m at my highest ranking I’ve been since I had the operation on my hip. I’m really proud of that.
“I had that operation a really long time ago. It has taken lots and lots of hard work and effort to get back to the top 40 in the world and I still feel like before the year’s out that I can push that even higher.
“I don’t think that this is like the limit for me. I do think that I can get myself much higher.”
The Scot (below) has a strong record against some of the best players in the world this year, winning three matches and losing twice against players ranked inside the top 20.
He admits that he feels his level of tennis is higher than what his ranking shows, even if he admits that he’s not always “playing 40-in-the-world level tennis”.
“I do think that I’m playing a better level than that. And that’s the positive thing for me, and the thing that keeps me going, providing that I keep learning and improving and working on the right things, my ranking will keep going up and I’ll win more matches against the best players.”
The former world number one reached the third round of the Canadian Open last week when he was forced to withdraw.
He’ll be hoping for a strong run at this year’s US Open next month, more than 10 years after he won the tournament in 2012.
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