Andy Murray to play Wimbledon with new doubles partner

It did not seem possible back in January when Andy Murray thought his career was over, but as of last night, the former world No 1 is now looking to the future with hope, ambition and good dose of optimism.

Andy Murray celebrates victory at his comeback match at the Queen's Club. Picture: Steven Paston/PA Wire

He and Feliciano Lopez won their opening doubles match at the Fever-Tree Championships, beating the Colombian duo of Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal 7-6, 6-3. Murray felt no pain. He was happy with the win but he was delighted with his newly resurfaced hip: it did not hurt at all.

“I sort of expected to be the worst player on the court tonight and to not feel particularly good on the court,” Murray said. “But then I think I started to play better in the second [set] and started to serve a bit better, see the returns a little bit better and things.

“I have zero discomfort in my hip – after the match, like, nothing. And if I had done this last year, I’d be here aching, throbbing, and feel bad the next day. So I’ll just keep pushing and see how it goes. But I feel optimistic about the future. I don’t know how long it will take to get to that level [playing singles], but, you know, hopefully not too long.”

It was obvious that Murray was enjoying every moment of his first match in five months and his first pain-free match in two years. “I expected to enjoy the match because I told myself I was going to regardless of what happened,” he said. “I spoke a bit about that with my team: regardless of the result you need to make sure you enjoy this, because a few months ago I had no clue whether I’d be back playing on a court. And to feel as well as I did there – not perfect in terms of everything, like my movement and things, but pain-free and stuff, I mean, I enjoyed it.”

Murray and Lopez are back on court today where they will play either Ken Skupski and Dan Evans or Felix Auger-Aliassime and Alex de Minaur in the quarter-finals.

The Scot is planning to play in Eastbourne next week with Marcelo Melo and at Wimbledon with Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who won doubles at SW19 in 2016 with Nicolas Mahut. He is also looking for a mixed doubles partner for Wimbledon. “If I’m feeling good, yeah, I will [play mixed],” he said. “I sort of asked a couple of people to play, but I need to wait and see how I’m feeling first, and if I feel good, then I would like to, yeah.”