Murray's own take on his return to singles play:
“I think I did okay. I think there was a lot of things I would like to have done better in the match, but you also have to be somewhat realistic, as well, in terms of what you can expect in terms of how you actually play and hit the ball,” Murray said. “Richard, he uses all of the angles on the court. He's one of the best at doing that. So I was having to move quite a lot laterally, and I didn't move forward particularly well. Like when he drop-shotted, there was a few times I didn't even run to the ball, didn't react to it, and that's nothing to do with my hip. That's just me not running for a ball, which I did do that better at the end of the match. I reacted and got to a few and won points.”
Murray was broken immediately in both the first and second sets. But he showed his trademark grit on the court, battling hard throughout the one-hour, 37-minute encounter.
“The first game I felt quite nervous. [In] the first couple of games, it was actually pretty windy at the beginning. It was fine sort of midway through the first set, but right at the beginning it was pretty breezy, and I just felt a bit unsure of myself at the beginning and played a poor game to get broken,” Murray said. “I just haven't played a match for seven months. I hardly played before then, either. I haven't played many matches in the past 18 months, really.
“It's going to take time, and I haven't been practising lots of singles until recently. So I need time, and it's not going to come back in one week or one tournament. It's been a long process to get here, but to get back maybe to where I want to get is going to take a lot of time and a lot more work.”
Former World No. 1 Andy Murray made his return to the singles court Monday for the first time since the Australian Open, falling in straight sets to Frenchman Richard Gasquet at the Western & Southern Open. And although he felt no major pain, the Scot announced that he will not be playing...
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