Murena marches on - but Andy admits that US Open singles bid is 'unlikely'

The 32-year-old is delighted with his comeback from January’s hip resurfacing surgery at the All England Club this year, which gathered pace last night as his partnership with the 23-time Grand Slam winner recorded this 7-5, 6-3 win against France’s Fabrice Martin and Raquel Atawo of the USA. He is even emboldened enough to step up his training specifically for singles as soon as this tournament is out of the way.

But such are the physical standards which the Scot requires of himself that he feels he won’t have enough time to build himself up sufficiently for the demands of the US hard court swing, which gets under way with the Citi Open in Washington on July 27 and culminates at Flushing Meadows itself on August 26.

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The 32-year-old knows that returning from an injury like this requires extreme caution. Knowing the last thing he needs is another operation, he is playing the long game. Glasgow just happens to be hosting a low-level Challenger tournament called the Murray trophy in mid-September, but even that may be too soon if the physical testing and analytics aren’t quite up to scratch.

“For me just now all matches are good,” the Scot said last night. “Doubles especially is good for the reflexes and the reactions and stuff. Once I am finished here – hopefully on Sunday – I will get back and start practising more singles.

“Will I be back [in singles] for the US hard court swing?” added Murray, who is bidding to become the first man in Wimbledon history since Rod Laver to win the men’s singles and mixed doubles titles. “I think it’s pretty unlikely just in terms of timing. I spoke to my team a bit about that yesterday. There’s just a lot of stuff I need to get done physically, to 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 ways away unfortunately.

“I would love to play. But I need to look 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.”

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While the Scot could theoretically head out to play doubles in the States during the fall, it seems likelier he will skip that and devote all his energies to fine-tuning his body for singles. “I don’t know if I want to go over to the States to play doubles for four or five weeks,” he said. “I’m not sure. 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.”

Andy isn’t quite the last Brit standing at this year’s championships – a role he has reprised many times. But a controversial defeat for his brother Jamie and his partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands means that the notion of an all-Dunblane doubles derby is off.

Whether you call it SerAndy or Murena, this partnership is starting to look the part. They faced only two break points all day yesterday, saving both, with Serena’s returning against her male opponent stealing some of the Scot’s thunder. “One of the things that has probably showed a bit in the first two matches is, like, breakpoints and stuff, maybe I haven’t played them as well as I would have liked,” he said. “That’s something you get better with playing more matches, playing more of those points.”

Fined £10,000 on Monday for damaging a court, the 37-year-old seemed to be taking out her frustration on the Frenchman, who she also clouted with a close-range volley early in the match. Playing on the day a self-penned Harpers Bazaar essay emerged saying that she had seen a therapist in the wake of the rancorous end to her 2018 US Open hopes against Naomi Osaka, the pair seem increasingly relaxed in each other’s company. They will need to be at their best to overcome No 1 seeds Bruno Soares and Nicole Melichar in today’s last 16 match. “There were a few jokes out there,” said Andy. “We can’t say them in here, unfortunately.”

While Evan Hoyt and Eden Silva are the only other Brits still standing in any of the senior draws, there was a Scottish success story in the boys doubles where the in-form duo of Jacob Fearnley and Connor Thomson racked up another impressive result. The teenagers, fresh from back-to-back wins at Nottingham and Roehampton, recorded a fine 6-2, 6-4 win over the highly-rated pairing of Kazakhstan’s Sergey Fomin and Gauthier Onclin of Belgium.