Andy Murray confirms return date after late withdrawal from Wimbledon
After assessing his fitness ahead of Wimbledon, the former British No 1 decided he was not ready for best-of-five-sets tennis
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Your support makes all the difference.Andy Murray has confirmed that he intends to compete at the Washington Open, which gets underway on 29 July, after pulling out of Wimbledon on the eve of the Championships.
After an 11-month absence from the game due to a hip injury, Murray made his return to tennis at the Fever-Tree Championships at Queen’s Club last month. But after assessing his fitness ahead of Wimbledon, the former British No 1 decided he was not ready for best-of-five-sets tennis.
Having spent the past nine days training and working on his recovery, Murray now feels he'll be fit enough to compete at the Washington Open as he turns his attention to the hard-court season.
"My plan is to play in Washington, which starts three weeks yesterday," he said during a TV interview with the BBC. "So I will be here the next couple weeks practising on hard courts then head to the states, maybe to Washington or Miami first for some practice before getting back to matches."
Addressing his decision to pull out of Wimbledon at the eleventh hour, the former Wimbledon champion said: "There is always a chance you can re-injure yourself when you start competing again.
"I wasn't worried about re-injuring but if you put your body through the extreme schedule too quickly your body will react. I wanted to be in better shape before I put my body in that situation again."
He added: "I think it was the best decision not to play at Wimbledon. I was really difficult for me. Last time I came in when the hip was bad, made the quarter-finals and misses a year. I didn’t want to go in, play four or five matches and do more damage.
"I wanted to make a smart decision. Hopefully I will be back competing in the next few weeks."
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