Andy Murray to play Fever-Tree Championships at Queen's Club
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Murray practises before Queen's return
2018 Fever-Tree Championships on the BBC |
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Venue: Queen's Club, London Dates: 18-24 June |
Coverage: Watch live on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button, Connected TVs, the BBC Sport website and app. |
Britain's former world number one Andy Murray will make his competitive return from hip surgery in the Fever-Tree Championships at Queen's next week.
The three-time Grand Slam winner, 31, will play for the first time in almost a year, having come through a practice session in London on Friday.
He will play Australian world number 24 Nick Kyrgios in the first round.
The Scot's last competitive appearance was at Wimbledon last July, and he had surgery in January.
Elsewhere in the draw, British number one Kyle Edmund will play American Ryan Harrison, while Dan Evans, who be playing his first ATP Tour event since a year's ban for taking cocaine, faces France's Adrian Mannarino.
Spanish reigning champion Feliciano Lopez takes on Belgium's David Goffin, while Croatian top seed Marin Cilic plays another Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco.
Bulgarian second seed Grigor Dimitrov will face Bosnia's Damir Dzumhur while Serbia's 12-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic - who finished as runner-up at Queen's in 2008 - will play a qualifier.
World number four Juan Martin del Potro - who would have been top seed - pulled out of the tournament on Friday, saying he had been "advised to rest" by medics.
The 29-year-old Argentine, who has suffered a catalogue of injury problems in recent years, reached the French Open semi-finals last week.
Murray's long-awaited return
Following his surgery in Australia, Murray said he would only return to competition when completely fit and ready, although has long targeted a return for the grass-court season.
He had hoped to play in this week's Libema Open in the Netherlands, but pulled out after saying he was "not quite ready and wanted to be 100%".
Murray, a five-time Queen's champion, practised on his own at the west London club before playing two sets against British number three Cameron Norrie on Friday.
The Scot's last competitive match was his Wimbledon quarter-final defeat by American Sam Querrey on 12 July, 2017.
He said he first felt pain in his right hip during the French Open semi-final against Wawrinka in June 2017, though he has had issues with it throughout his career.
Murray withdrew from the US Open two days before the start of the tournament in August, and said he realised he was not ready to compete in Brisbane prior to January's Australian Open when he tested his hip against other top-50 players.
He had an operation at the St Vincent Hospital in Melbourne on 8 January.
This year's Wimbledon begins on 2 July.
- Published24 June 2018
