Inside Andy Murray's Wimbledon practice session as Brit weighs up pulling out
Andy Murray spent an hour and a half on the practice court at Wimbledon on Monday.
Andy Murray showed signs of improvement as he tested himself for potentially the last time before making a decision about his first-round Wimbledon match.
The two-time champion at SW19 spent 90 minutes on one of the practice courts tucked away in the corner of Aorangi Park and played a practice set with Kyle Edmund, leading 6-3 2-0 when their time ran out.
There was some classic chatter from Murray, bemoaning some of his shots and decisions, but his movement was still questionable despite getting better.
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It was a slow start on the practice courts nestled near the back of the All England Club. There was a lot of static hitting from Murray as he sparred with Edmund, only taking a couple of steps to retrieve balls.
He moved on to practising his overhead and slowly started to run for the odd ball. The 37-year-old finished with some serves before they got into their practice set, where Murray started to run more.
There was a clear issue with his lateral movement, especially on the backhand side. It appeared that the former world No. 1 couldn’t get down low enough or push off to see the results he wanted when he was backed into the left corner.
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But, considering he underwent surgery nine days ago, he was better moving forward than he was going side-to-side. His serve was mostly unaffected, if a little slower than usual, and did the job against former world No. 14 Edmund, and the forehand looked decent too.
The score ended at 6-3 2-0 to Murray, who broke twice in the set and again as they carried on playing. After winning the practice set, coach Jonny O’Mara asked the three-time Major winner whether he wanted to play a 10-point tiebreak or continue with full games.
“Keep going,” Murray replied, a promising indication of his hunger to keep playing and try to be on the court against Tomas Machac come Tuesday. In the few short days since he started hitting at Aorangi, he is already looking better. But it will need to be enough to compete over five sets.
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It was no surprise that several players stopped to get a glimpse of Murray in action during his practice contest with Edmund, with Andrey Rublev and Katie Boulter briefly watching on. And Novak Djokovic had to dart across the net to get to the court he had booked.
It was likely the final time that Djokovic and Murray will be side-by-side on the practice courts. Having faced off on the biggest stages in the most important matches, it’s a special sight to see the multi-Grand Slam champions both doing all they can to try and be fit for Wimbledon after recent surgeries.
While Djokovic seems ready to go, things are more uncertain for Murray. And tennis fans will be waiting with bated breath as he is set to make a decision on playing the singles on Monday night.
