Hip “much better”, says defending champ Murray

Despite an injury- and form-affected lead-up to Wimbledon, Andy Murray said on Sunday that he was on track physically ahead of his title defence.

Murray opens the Centre Court schedule on Monday against lucky loser Alexander Bublik – an unpredictable 20-year-old from Kazakhstan – having played just one match on grass; a straight-sets loss to another lucky loser, Jordan Thompson, in the first round of Queen’s.

The world No.1 this week pulled out of two exhibition matches at the Aspall Tennis Classic at Hurlingham due to hip soreness.

Yet he believes the injury is on the improve as he begins to shoot for a third Wimbledon title to add to his Grand Slam trophy cabinet.

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“I’ve had hip problems since I was very young. It’s not something new to me. It’s just been very sore the last few weeks. It was giving me quite a lot of trouble moving to certain shots and getting into certain positions,” he explained on Sunday at the All England Club.

“So that was why I needed to take the break, to try and give it a chance to settle down, calm down a bit. Spent a lot of time with my physio and doing some extra exercises in my warm-up, strengthening exercises, a lot of stuff to try to loosen off that area.

“It’s felt much better the last few days.

“Practice each day has got a little bit better. It’s been slightly stop-start preparations. But each day I’ve felt better.

“A little bit like at the French Open, where maybe I didn’t come in as well-prepared, I still found a way with each match to feel a bit better, and built confidence each day.

“So I’m hoping that’s the case here.”

Murray admitted he hadn’t seen much of his first-round opponent play.

The world No.135, born and residing in Russia despite representing Kazakhstan, has spent the bulk of the season contesting Challenger events and ATP qualifying draws.

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Part of the ATP World Tour’s exciting “Next Gen” crop of talent, Bublik qualified for the main draw of Australian Open 2017 and reached the second round, his best tour-level result of the season.

“I haven’t played against him, and I’ve not seen him play loads. I’ve heard a few things from some of the players. I chatted to him a little bit at Indian Wells earlier in the year. He’s obviously a big personality,” Murray said.

“From what I’ve heard, he’s pretty entertaining on the court in terms of the way he plays, how he is. Quite unorthodox. He plays a lot of unexpected shots, a lot of drop shots, mixes his game up a lot, takes chances, tries some more sort of shots that guys may play in exhibitions, he tries when he’s out there. That’s what I’ve heard.

“I’ll try and watch a bit of video this evening with my team, see what we can get hold of, take it from there. But, yeah, be an interesting match.”