Wimbledon 2017: Fitness concerns continue to linger for Andy Murray ahead of title defence

What’s the story?

World No. 1 Andy Murray is in a race to get fit ahead of his Wimbledon title defence next week as his hip injury still continues to linger. The Briton’s preparation has been seriously hampered and he had to pull out of both the exhibition matches that he was scheduled to participate in at the Aspall Classic at the Hurlingham Club this week.

On Friday, Murray took to the practice courts and had two hits and the picture has been quite gloomy. BBC Sport’s David Ornstein has reported that the Wimbledon top seed is still limping and grimacing in between rallies.

“He is hitting with Steve Darcis and looks reasonably comfortable in rallies but is limping heavily, bending over and grimacing in between. No serving so far, just groundstrokes,” Ornstein wrote.

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At the time of withdrawal from his first exhibition match at the Hurlingham Club on Tuesday, Murray’s team had cited the reason to be just a precautionary measure. However, the hip had continued to be sore and forced the three-time Grand Slam champion to forego his second practice match as well.

Fears over Murray’s fitness have grown further after he could not attend any of his practice sessions at the All England Club apart from pulling out of a charity hit with former British No. 1 Tim Henman.

The heart of the matter

Murray’s sore hip played a role in his shock opening round defeat to lower-ranked Jordan Thompson at the Queen’s Club last week. Even though the situation has been worrying, the 30-year-old’s coach Ivan Lendl has sounded very optimistic that Murray will be able to recover in time for his home Slam.

One of the Scot’s biggest rivals - Roger Federer - too is confident that Murray will make it. Calling him ‘tough as nails’, the 18-time Major winner said he totally expects the defending champion to play.

What’s next?

Murray opens his title defence on Monday against a qualifier or a lucky loser. He is slated to meet two-time champion Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals.

Author’s take

The presence of all the members of the famed ‘Big Four’ quartet at the Wimbledon Championships has piqued interest of sports fans all over the world after witnessing a French Open sans Federer. Even last year Wimbledon had to deal with the disappointment of Nadal’s withdrawal, who was recuperating from a wrist injury at that time.

Here’s hoping that there’s no such repeat and Murray can indeed make a lot of progress in the next couple of days to be able to defend his crown.