By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday, June 25, 2022
Andy Murray has been operating under an injury cloud ever since he pulled out of Queen’s Club due to the ab injury he suffered during his run to the final at Stuttgart two weeks ago. The two-time Wimbledon champion confirmed on Saturday that he’s made big progress with his fitness and feels ready to go ahead of Monday’s Centre Court clash with Aussie James Duckworth.
“It's gone well,” Murray said of his pre-tournament training. “I've been able to gradually progress my training this week and got to play a few sets, a lot of points – last few days have been good.”
It has been a solid season for Murray, who has returned to the top-100 and top-50 for the first time since May of 2018. He is 19-10 overall, but lacks the signature wins that he used to rack up with regularity. Murray is just 2-6 against the top-20 in 2022, and 5-16 against the top-20 since the start of 2020.
Could his recent victories over 16th-ranked Denis Shapovalov in Madrid and No.5-ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas in Stuttgart be the beginning of a trend? Each came after Murray had hired former muse Ivan Lendl for a third stint as his coach.
Murray says he gained confidence from his performance on the grass at Stuttgart where he defeated Alexander Bublik, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Nick Kyrgios before playing a three-set final with Matteo Berrettini.
“I think I showed a couple weeks ago that there was still good tennis left in me,” the 35-year-old Scot said. “I mean, I beat a guy in the top five in the world, was neck-and-neck with Berrettini, who is one of the best grass court players in the world before the injury. I played well against Kyrgios, as well. The first set was a good level. And I've been doing pretty well in practices.
“Yeah, I know the tennis is in there; I just need to bring it out during the event now.”