Andy Murray will continue his comeback from hip surgery by playing more doubles and will team up with his brother, Jamie, at the Citi Open in Washington DC. The former world No 1 has so far been restricted to doubles action since returning to the game following his hip resurfacing operation in January, winning his first tournament back at Queen’s in June before suffering early exits at Eastbourne and Wimbledon.
After his loss at the All England Club, where he also played mixed doubles with Serena Williams, Andy ruled out the prospect of attempting to make a singles return during the American hard court season and said he was unsure whether he would carry on playing doubles or focus his training towards singles action.
But the 32-year-old has opted for the former and will play with his brother in Washington in the tournament which starts next Monday.
“They called us and said Andy really wanted to come back to DC, and wanted to play doubles with his brother,” tournament director Mark Ein told the New York Times. “We’re putting a real focus on doubles at the event – it’s a terrific piece of the competition and entertainment value for fans – so we were thrilled he wanted to return.”
The Murray brothers last played together in the Rio Olympics, but were a prolific partnership during Great Britain’s 2015 Davis Cup victory, while they have won two ATP Tour titles together, in Tokyo in 2011 and Valencia the year before. Jamie is the defending champion at Washington, having won the tournament last year with Bruno Soares.
It is perhaps a bit of a surprise that Andy is opting to return to Washington after last year’s tournament director, Keely O’Brien, criticised him.
In the early stages of a comeback from his first round of hip surgery, he had been left in tears after winning a marathon battle with Marius Copil that ended at 3am local time and said afterwards he did not know whether he would play his next match.
He ended up withdrawing from the tournament, by which time O’Brien had told the Washington Post: “I hope that Andy really takes into consideration this role in his sport, and as a global role model to guys and girls on the tour and kids around the world that, when things are difficult and tough and the conditions aren’t great, it’s not OK to just give up.”
