ANDY MURRAY is in a race against time to be fit for Wimbledon after pulling out of his comeback event.
Murray was due to make his long-awaited return at a tournament in s’-Hertgoenbosch, Holland, next week.
But the former world No 1 has withdrawn and says he will not play again until he is 100 per cent fit after hip surgery.
Murray said: “It is with regret that I won’t be ready to play in Hertogenbosch.
“I was excited to play there for the first time, but I am not quite ready to return.
“I am still aiming to play in the coming weeks, but I want to be 100% when I do return.”
This was a more downbeat, realistic assessment than Murray put out earlier in the day in a video for a sponsor.
The Dutch event was the first tournament Murray had officially entered since the keyhole surgery he had in January, following a failed bid to be fit for the Australian Open.
His next scheduled tournament – and the next deadline in his fitness battle – is the Fever-Tree Championships at the Queen’s Club which begin on June 18.
It is understood Murray will make a last-minute decision on whether to take up his place in the high-level field, depending on his progress in the next week to 10 days of on-court training.
But if the Scot were to miss Queen’s, he would surely not risk making his comeback at Wimbledon where his hip would have to stand up to best-of-five-set matches.
Murray’s last competitive tennis was his SW19 quarter-final defeat by Sam Querrey on July 12, 2017, in which he was badly hampered by a problem in his right hip.
Asked about his rehabilitation from January’s operation, Murray admitted in a promo video for a sponsor: “It’s been very slow.
“I’ve been out getting close to a year now which is a lot longer than I think me or any of my team expected at the beginning.
“But I’m getting closer to playing again, I’ve started training a few days ago and hoping to make my comeback during the grass court season.”
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After his struggles at Wimbledon, Murray tried and failed to be fit for August’s US Open and decided to miss the rest of the year.
He targeted a January tournament in Brisbane. But after a reality check at an exhibition event in Abu Dhabi he pulled out of Brisbane and the Australian Open, then had a hip operation in Melbourne.
Murray was initially upbeat and immediately set his sights on returning for the grass-court season.
The Lawn Tennis Association set up new Challenger-level events in Glasgow in April and Loughborough last month in the expectation Murray would be ready for at least one of them.
But he had some kind of setback in April and has only just started hitting balls on court again.
Murray, his team and family are all trying to remain positive.
But the fear is that he will now have to postpone his comeback until at least the hard-court season in the USA.
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