It's just after one in the morning here, in Melbourne, on the 8th of January.
Struggling to get to sleep, because I've got...
my hip operation in the morning...
not particularly looking forward to it, you never know how these things
are gonna go.
Feeling pretty nervous, but...
fingers crossed, it all goes okay.
Second Wednesday, quarter finals day.
This is Sam Querrey of the United States, versus...
Andy Murray, now the number-one player in the world.
It's been a tough time for him, he's going in there certainly handicapped
by an injury that he has not been happy to talk about,
but it has appeared to be present.
No matter how many reassurances we've had from the Murray camp that it's fine,
that he's always walked like that.
Now, that is a hungry performance from Murray.
He's been keeping his first serve percentage up,
-he's been moving spectacularly. -He knows his way around the grass court
better than anyone out there.
That's well handled by Querrey.
A bit surprised that Murray didn't move forward sooner.
Murray's game dropped off pretty significantly into that set.
It's amazing how he seems to be noticeably limping.
Shrinking.
That's it! Certainly physically, Andy Murray not right,
and we'll find out more about that.
It was still a rumour that had to be quelled.
Andy Murray had a bad hip.
BBC tennis correspondent is reporting that the specific injury
is a labral tear. We've got some pretty extreme pain going on there.
As Andy Murray has pulled out of the US Open,
saying his ongoing hip problem would not allow him
-to win the competition. -It's too sore, so unfortunately,
I won't be playing this year.
It's another major setback for Andy Murray, who is so desperate
-to be able to resume his tennis career. -Yeah, the last few months
have been difficult for sure.
Did pretty much everything that I could to get myself ready.
Andy Murray arrived in Australia to make his return to competitive tennis.
Unless something happens in the next couple of days,
I don't see myself not playing because of my hip.
Andy Murray pulls out of this month's Australian Open after failing to recover
-from an ongoing hip injury. -There's some anxious waiting ahead
for fans of Andy Murray after the former world number one
threw nearly his entire season into doubt by announcing his hip injury was no better
and he was going under the knife.
So, I just...
Coming around from the procedure.
Went on a little bit longer than what was...
expected, but I've been told that...
it all went pretty well. So...
fingers crossed for a quick recovery now.
And then the next one down, so you get a--
This is before we're quite finished, but... So, that's labral.
For 29 as an athlete, you know, I know that that's not particularly young,
so I would expect to have some aches and pains in my body,
but from the Querrey match, it was-- it was different.
You know, I was still-- At the time, I was the number-one tennis player in the world,
and I couldn't walk any more.
And I couldn't put my shoes on, I couldn't put my socks on.
And when that went on for, you know, a little period is when I was starting
to worry.
Because I just always expected that with each day that passed
that it would just get better.
-And it didn't. -Yeah, that's really good.
-Andy, that's pretty neat, huh? -Yeah, very neat, yeah.
You'll have nothing to show for it later.
I had a labral repair, my ligamentum teres was torn,
so I had that removed.
Yeah, I mean, I had significant inflammation
in my hip as well, which he had sort of scraped out.
There was...
pretty severe cartilage damage in there, but John felt like he'd seen worse.
I mean, I'm pretty optimistic. I mean, I obviously just have to make sure
that I do all the rehab properly and, you know, get as much advice...
as I can in terms of when I should start doing certain things,
when I could potentially start to compete again, but...
yeah, I feel okay.
People always say to me, they're like,
"Oh, you must be loving him at home now," and...
it's lovely in the sense that we are a young family
with two small children and, you know, he's been on the road for so long...
but, at the same time, he's home, but he's still working all day, every day,
trying to get better.
It's still such early days for anyone that's had that kind of surgery,
and we obviously hope that he'll get there,
I think more just for the sake of
watching him in the garden with the children,
and, you know, being able to get on the floor with them, and that's...
probably our priority, is just to see him just around the house
and living his daily life.
-I think there's gonna be way more snow. -Yeah, I think it's coming. Yeah. Yeah.
The forecast tomorrow, it's gonna be tricky getting in.
Shane is my physiotherapist,
been working with him about five or six years.
He's probably the nicest man that I've ever met.
He's never rude about anyone, but...
he worries about everything, which we obviously enjoy winding him up about.
You're gonna have so much good stuff of that.
He's obviously tapping into my weaknesses. Yeah, I'm gullible enough
to bite most times. So, yeah.
Sometimes, I view them as like an old couple
that just know exactly what buttons to push.
I'd love to be married to Shane.
I'd have so much fun, it'd be brilliant.
Mark Bender is my physiotherapist. Also known as "Slender"
which is obviously ironic because...
he's not particularly slender.
So, you see, we-- Although Andy's, you know, recovering from his hip,
you know, we still do...
Shane and I both still do lots of work on the rest of his body.
Mark would be in some ways the father figure.
He's a voice of experience, especially in difficult times.
So, there. Slender's such a fucking pro, isn't he?
-He's such a fucking pro. -You can't coach this.
-You can't teach that. -You can't coach it.
-You can't teach that. -He gives the courses.
-Yeah. -He doesn't take--
He gives the test.
Matt Little, known as "Treaks," is my physical trainer.
And I've been with Andy for 11 years now.
Yeah, it's a long sentence.
-Well, what wattage am I looking for? -Well, we'll see.
It's the first metcon you've done on there for a while.
-You need to stop saying that. -Yeah, I know.
'Cause none of us know what it means.
Nor do I.
Jamie Delgado is my coach.
We know him as "Delgi," which is self-explanatory.
Andy thinks he gives nice hugs, but he's...
He could be a bit more loving. Can I have some?
I played against Delgi when I was really, really young. I think I was 15,
I could've been younger, and he was a professional at the time.
And I smoked him. I beat him.
He'll always remind me of that.
Cause I was genuinely just playing terrible at the time.
The feedback was the surgery went fantastically well,
we've got rid of the issues. Great news, from our perspective.
And so, the job then is get him strong, get him fit, start to build up.
Wait, what are you-- Fuck!
He was making big strides in his strength and his mobility.
He was getting decent scores on conditioning sessions
and then Donna's watching him on the reformer, saying,
"Look at his range of movement here."
The only thing that wasn't heading in the right direction was pain.
But from our perspective at the time, we're thinking,
"Well, yeah, of course you're in pain, you know, you're coming back from surgery.
But if you're able to get strong, get mobile, get loose,
and hit balls again, that means you can play.
That means you can get back on the court and try."
But when we'd started to build Andy up to the higher levels of impact,
he got very sore, very quickly,
and just wasn't able to absorb that amount of stress through his body.
I mean, we were also getting told at that time
that the hip would be improving with play,
and he's getting stronger.
You know, the injury's gonna keep getting better,
he's only had surgery a few months ago, so this was part of the process.
I have no movement that way at all.
It's not the lack of movement so much that's the issue,
it's like, it's sore and it feels weak as well.
Second serves were good.
Your leg was kind of straightening out more.
It's not perfect, but-- In fact, there's no-one saying it's perfect,
but it's... You are kind of getting closer to that.
Like...
getting pumped over that is...
No, it's an improvement, isn't it?
Yeah, I know, but that's what I mean, it's so minor...
and I just feel like there's such a long...
way to go.
-Hello. -Lleyton!
-Yeah. -Can you hear me?
-Yeah, no worries! -How you doing, mate? You all right?
-Hey, mate. Good, good. -I was gonna try and speak
to a couple of the guys that have had the...
the hip surgery, and how, kind of, it was...
-like, during the recovery. -It was four months
from when I had it done after the Beijing Olympics
through to the Hopman Cup, was my first tournament back.
When you started playing again and stuff, you weren't sore anywhere?
Not sore, no. Not sore. I felt-- Like, obviously the first few times,
but for you, you know,
you've been three months, I was hitting at eight weeks,
eight or nine weeks, so for me those first couple of weeks.
But once I got back to the three-month mark,
and getting ready to play tournaments, I was pretty good.
Yeah, I mean, there's no-- Like, if I tried to play in three-- three weeks,
I mean, there's pretty much no chance I'd be able to do it.
No chance, yeah.
-Okay. -Okay.
-Great. -Yeah.
Thanks a lot.
All right, mate, no worries. Anything else, just let us know.
-Cheers. Thanks a lot. -All right.
-See you later. Bye. -See you, guys, no worries.
The ambiguity comes when Andy's probably got
in the back of his mind that other people have made it back from that surgery
in that space of time.
But the reality is...
we didn't know how long it was gonna take him to actually recover
from that surgery.
Meanwhile in tennis, and there's been some bad news for Andy Murray.
Bad news indeed, his recovery from hip surgery
has run into problems.
The Scot has yet to do any court work and has even pulled out
of a couple of corporate appearances.
Some newspapers are speculating that the former world number one
may not return in time for this year's Wimbledon Championships.
It was never going to be just a magic button that you push
and the pain has disappeared, and I think
maybe there was a time when Andy hoped that would be the case,
but I think we all believe that he just needs to give it time.
Was that a big stretch or sore?
It's a big stretch, and it's a little bit sore.
And his body at the same time isn't his own,
he's got other people with vested interests,
he's got people putting pressure on him, and he's got sponsors that get twitchy,
and he's got media that have got an expectation on him,
and kind of by his own doing because, I think, he set goals for himself
at the beginning of the year, and publicly shared them,
that he felt like he would be ready for the grass.
-Walking's good. -It just doesn't feel good.
Murray is not thought to have done very much at all on court
in the past fortnight. Publicly, he has been targeting
the grass court season for a return to the tour.
But sources suggested he was ahead of schedule
after an encouraging first month back in training.
Now, though, there must be some doubt
over whether he will be fit for the start of the grass court season.
What is the story?
There is no story, they're-- What they want to do is me to say,
"Yeah, I'm gonna be ready to play Wimbledon." And then I don't play.
And then it's a massive drama. Like, "What the hell has happened?
The rehab's been a disaster."
Like, in situations like this where they've got other British players
to write about that are doing really well...
like, why they have to try to put extra pressure on me...
when I'm going through a really difficult time...
I don't get it.
I don't have anything else to tell them,
except I'm rehabbing and...
hopefully I'll be ready.
Well, that makes me feel better.
I think right before he had the surgery, people were questioning
if he was actually gonna be coming back and then whilst, you know, he came out,
was very optimistic after the surgery, publicly,
I think a lot of people were like, "Oh, it's finished, he's over."
I'm assuming that this is the end of his career,
and it may not be. It's just an awful long way back,
it's a real uphill struggle from here.
With concerns now growing among fans and the tennis media
-about the Scot's future in the sport... -His surgery has to be considered,
and with that, the risk comes that it may end your career.
History in tennis shows that Gustavo Kuerten, Magnus Norman,
both had to call time in their careers after having operations on their hip.
In the beginning of my career it started with, you know,
"Not fit enough,
doesn't work hard enough." There was articles, like, out there,
that I was lazy and stuff, and didn't practice hard.
Oh, it's gone again. That left thigh has gone again.
Murray's physical conditioning has just dropped.
This is not a pretty sight.
Oh, no!
Injury has once again destroyed Andy Murray's chance--
Over three hours, Andy Murray simply had nothing left to give.
Yeah, and then it kinda moved on to basically that I was mentally weak.
It's like he's in quicksand, Murray. Mentally and physically.
The negative body language, the negative verbal language,
does that get in his way as well?
He's lost his temper, he's lost the plot.
The way he behaves, it's just-- it's not good enough.
And he won't win anything.
The other thing that always spurred him on was when anybody suggested
that he couldn't do something.
You know, it was all that sort of chat.
"He's now lost four slam finals, is he ever gonna win one?"
The 74 years of hurt goes on.
-Seventy-five years and counting. -As the Great British drought continues.
Whether it's criticism or not, I'm using it as criticism to drive,
you know, everything that I'm doing on a day-to-day basis.
I feel like for both of us and knowing how we've grown up, and the expectations,
the pressures, you know, everything that was ahead of us,
he needed that philosophy of life, he needed that kind of mindset,
and I feel like that has made him tough and just made his skin so thick
that he can sustain anything.
He always had been
one of the most talented players that I ever saw.
When he had couple more years on the tour, I think he became
more solid mentally, no?
Andy is a type of guy, how I sense him,
he goes into, "Hard work will pay off," and he played the most amazing tennis,
you know, and this is the reaction of a champion.
When somebody with his level is really able to work with that intensity
it's because he really want to do something,
something more, no?
You know, maybe it's a slightly warped mentality
but when someone puts you down or whatever,
you don't always have to respond, like, with words.
Like, that's my way of doing it, with actions.
I think the tennis gods got together and said, "If this young man is going
to get a grand slam, he is going to have to really earn it,
emotionally, physically."
Down the T it is long, set two, Andy Murray.
How about a one-hour, 27-minute set?
And we are going to a fifth set in the US Open final.
One game separates him from what many feel is his destiny.
-Out! -It was long.
No longer second fiddle.
No longer the questions, "Can he? Will he?"
-The answer is emphatically yes. -Andy Murray!
Your 2012 US Open Men's Champion, Andy Murray!
Be tough...
work hard, surround yourself with the right people,
believe you can turn around matches and play through pain,
play through injuries and all of that. Andy has shown that he can do that.
Every time he has faced adversity, he's always come back stronger.
He doesn't give up on anything and he's not giving up on himself
with this just quite yet.
What was the aim of us getting together today?
-'Cause, I mean, I'm gonna start... -Well, yeah, I mean, I felt, like,
it is important for you to chat with everyone, and then ultimately a plan
moving forward to try to get back on the court, because obviously I'm now...
coming up to ten months since I last competed,
and I'm not just gonna continue doing what I'm doing for another 12 months.
The pain is the thing that, if I can't get rid of that
then obviously that's...
-game over. -Seeing Andy, first of all, I realized
he was in pain, so I thought, "Well, we can go nowhere further with this
until we either get rid of his pain or at least make it so much easier
so he can function and go on to the next stage.
I suggested using an oral medication.
I thought it was worth considering injection therapy,
again with a traditional cortisone into the joint.
Also, throwing into the mix was some nerve ablation.
Just to numb down one of the nerves at the front of the hip joint.
To me, once you get rid of the pain and you get the range back...
then it's very much down to the rehab team to work through the phases
of rehabilitation.
You'll notice that the range...
Bryan coming in, his thing was kind of, to do his recommended rehab exercises
a lot. So, a lot of repetitions and multiple times throughout the day.
Andy being Andy, he obviously would follow that to the letter
and would be doing kind of hours of...
stuff by himself when we're not around.
You know, that would explain why he's the athlete he is.
A lot of the time it is...
quite monotonous, but it's my job.
You know, my job is to try and fulfil my potential
and get the most out of myself, and the best way to do that
is to surround yourself with good people and follow to the most part what it is
that they're getting you to do.
But what I like to see is,
I like to see them sometimes suffering as well.
These men, their time working with me, basically ordering me to, you know,
do all of that stuff, and I don't think all of the time that they appreciate,
like, how difficult it is.
But then, yeah, when they participate and join in,
something-- something always goes wrong.
Quickly.
You know, he's not happy unless he's having a go at one of us
for our opinion on something, or any little slip up.
What are you doing?
All I ask is that you try your best, you didn't there.
Did you?
He's a perfectionist, looking for every detail
that could make a difference. Thinking about how to recover better,
how to be stronger, how to be smarter on the court.
I couldn't believe the amount of time he spent off the court preparing,
before and after practices. Or the amount of serving.
I've never seen a player serve this much.
Fucking animal!
But he wasn't afraid of hard work, and he believed in that.
I'll never forget, first week I ever work with him,
we did interval training.
Coming towards the end of the session,
Andy was on his knees, he was completely dead.
I said, "Look, okay, we'll stop there. that's enough."
And he spoke to me and he said, "Look, you know, I don't know what it is
within me, but I can keep going.
I can just keep going through the pain. When you think it's over for me,
keep pushing me, 'cause I can keep going."
Shit. No.
That's all right, that's good, that's good.
He was incredibly competitive on all fronts.
Well, that looks deep.
He needs to win.
-He needs to win an argument. -No way!
-Oh, my God! -Andy, it's that far.
-No, it's not. The ball was played... -Andy, Andy...
-...in this direction. It's right there. -Andy, the ball's out.
And it's fairly exhausting, I'm not gonna lie.
And I think even he knows it's fairly exhausting.
He wanna know at every freaking thing, "Why?"
What do you mean, "No"?
If the trainer told him about the injury, "Why?"
The doctor told him, "Why?"
Everything was "Why?" And literally,
then he could go read 10,000 words about it on Google search.
-He's gutted. -You can't close it now, man.
There's light until 9:30.
His level of indecision, his desire to argue
about the most minuscule issue...
Andy, Sam is the first US player to reach a major semi-final since 2009.
-Male player, right? -Yes, first male player. That's for sure.
But then, not want to have conflict in his life about serious issues.
Those characteristics are so important
for who he is as a person and a player.
You can't go to Andy, like, ill-prepared,
'cause you get found out really quickly,
because he's got a thirst for stats, for the analysis.
Like, he, literally exudes excellence. So then, when you're around him,
you have to go at that level, otherwise, you will get left behind.
So, with somebody like Andy Murray, he recalled his 15, 20 years
of working very hard as a tennis player,
and that's why, I think, in those latter phases of rehabilitation,
you know, he got through those really quickly.
You pull upon the muscle memory and everything your body has learned
to take you on to the next heights, wherever they be.
Andy Murray, how you feeling today?
-Yeah, good, yeah. -Good. Moving all right?
-Yeah. -Good.
-Well, I think so. -We'll have a look.
Use a word to describe it. Like a tightness or an ache or nothing?
By now, we've got to this part of the story where Andy had had
a couple of pretty big cortisone injections into the joint.
-How you doing, you all right? -Very good.
So, in essence, he was in this superpower period
where he was...
doing different stuff, felt less pain than he'd felt for a long time,
and he also always fancies himself on grass.
So, I'm playing my first match back tomorrow since my hip surgery.
It's been 11 months now since I last competed.
It just feels just quite strange.
Normally, kind of, during this period of the year,
I'm going into the grass court season with lots of expectation
and a lot of pressure.
I don't really know exactly how I'm feeling just now.
I'm quite apprehensive, pretty nervous.
But nerves are usually a good thing. Shows that you care and...
yeah, hopefully I can put in a decent performance.
A return to the tennis tour after nearly a year out.
A Queen's Club comeback after January's hip surgery.
We're all amateur doctors at the moment.
We're gonna be examining his hip microscopically.
Grass court season brings its own host of demons and problems,
but he missed being involved in the tour at that time of year.
He missed the places, he missed the people, he missed the crowd.
From early in your career, for a British player,
you're sort of told that it's the most important period
of the year. I didn't really believe that, like,
at the beginning, because I didn't love the grass court season that much,
like, I didn't love the tournament.
But then as I got older, although I found it very stressful
and everything, like, the grass court season...
is the period that I enjoyed playing the most.
Those three weeks in the tennis calendar for him, I think,
it's just about more than, "Oh, this is Andy, the tennis player."
It's Andy the person. There'd be nowhere else
that he'd laid himself as bare, or that had been the scene
-of so many highs and lows. -Championship point.
Everybody always talks about the pressure of playing at Wimbledon, how tough it is,
but it's not the people watching, they make it so much easier to play.
The support has been incredible, so... thank you.
Wonderful, wonderful stuff. This is the boy digging deep!
Sporting immortality doesn't come easy.
The waiting is over!
The Men's Singles Champion of Wimbledon 2013, Andy Murray!
Of all of my best memories, like, on a tennis court,
most of them would've been around the grass court season.
And that's why, like, every year, I would want to be involved in it
in some capacity.
He's back! Andy Murray!
Yes! Nothing's changed at all.
Go on.
Jeez!
No, no, no.
-That's a year-out shot, there. -Thirty all.
A bit of fatigue coming in now, perhaps, for him.
-It's another match point. That's too bad! -Game, set and match, Kyrgios.
Andy still expects to go out there and beat people and so,
the level of frustration, disappointment, if he doesn't win that tennis match
is the same as when he's fully fit.
My big comeback?
Disappointing, probably.
I've disappointed myself.
With each match that I play, during the grass, I felt worse.
And obviously, with each match, I was also practising in between.
During the match, I was trying to walk properly.
You know, people that are watching that think that you're sort of, like,
in the zone, and sort of playing, but I was like--
"There's obviously lots of people watching, TV...
If I'm out there, like, limping around and hobbling around, it's just not good."
Murray's broken again.
His resistance is almost broken here, as well.
Kyle Edmund wins the battle of Britain here in Eastbourne.
-Andy Murray's return is cut short. -You could say, in retrospect,
"Was that a little bit too early?"
But I know he needed that to be able to compete at Wimbledon.
Andy, I watched some of your final practice this afternoon
and at times you seemed a trifle frustrated
with some of your shots. And I wondered, did you feel that you're--
that you were all there? What were you views on it?
Well, I'd like to be playing better, I mean, I...
I've not been practising that-- that long.
Of course, you notice things that are maybe not quite
where you would like them to be.
But in terms of being there, I was there, yeah, and I was trying my best
in the practice, although not maybe playing as well
as I would've liked.
...weight on it, and...
It's obviously hard, because he's--
This is now a year on from when he was stepping out there
as number one in the world.
I didn't want him to be this sad shadow of what he used to be,
and ultimately that's kind of what it was, because he wasn't ready.
Andy Murray has said that he's pulling out of this year's Wimbledon tournament
which begins tomorrow. He's only just started playing again
after 11 months out of action with a hip injury,
and said he was withdrawing with a heavy heart.
Okay,
this probably-- Well, maybe, it's not gonna make much sense to you,
but I'll try.
So, I guess, post-Wimbledon, there was a belief that,
well, if he gave himself a bit longer to get a bit stronger, you know,
work on those kind of physical things while the pain was a little bit lower,
then there could be more improvement.
And so, he went and had another second nerve ablation...
which was more successful than the first.
Hey.
-How you doing? How's things? -I'm good.
You came here early.
I got here very early, yeah. I took the train and I didn't know
it was gonna be that fast.
Our body has sensory nerves
and those nerves give a signal of pain back to the body.
But I think we're...
-There's one case in front of us. -Okay.
It'll take 15 minutes, and then we're ready to go.
Okay. Should I get ready now? It'll be fairly soon.
-You know, I think yes. -Yeah.
Andy had an intervention where that nerve had heat put through it,
so that it frizzled a little bit and didn't work for a little while.
So that would ease Andy's pain, although he'd be still getting...
the load going through his body.
-That's brilliant. -Let's see what you've done.
What do you think, Shannon?
-Beautiful. -This is just sort of...
Centre Court, Wimbledon, that's a daubing.
See, didn't even have to fucking tell him what it was
-and he knew. -Cause of the shape of the arena.
-Exactly. -Can I see?
No, absolutely not. I'm not showing you on camera.
She's still gone, look at her.
I wonder what it is.
You've put, sort of, the back of the court.
Well, I haven't finished it yet, obviously. But...
you know, I'm getting asked to show my work before it's done.
And also, I'm not in a creative space right now, this is not where I do my art.
This is some sketching for my next piece. This is gonna be my next piece.
You're like a goldfish in a bowl right now,
-just being stared at. -Do you think Picasso
used to have people filming him do his-- you know, his best works?
No, I doubt it.
-Yep. -Okay, here we go, I'm going to sleep.
-Yes, come in. -Yes, please.
-Hi. They're ready for you in theatre. -Hello.
-Okay, great. -Well, I just need to check some things
-with you before we go, is that all right? -Yes.
And we did a training session, I think, a couple of days after that.
And I remember it very, very clearly, he walked out on the court and he said,
"Guys, I'm actually feeling pretty good today."
I'm-- "This is great, actually."
Which again, when you've been through what we've been through...
when he turns up and says, "I feel great," then ears start to prick up,
the energy changes.
We had the catapult, and I said, "Look...
Why don't you try a few sprints?"
He went out and absolutely blitzed these sprints.
That level of speed was not something I was expecting to see from him
possibly ever again, and so the level of optimism once again
went through the roof. Because he'd played enough practices,
he'd done enough strength work, ticked the pain box, go play.
So, there was a decision from Andy and the team that to go to the States
and see how he goes. And I guess that-- I think the following day
or the day after he went off to the States.
He returns to the sport later tonight when he faces Mackenzie McDonald
in the Washington Open. The tournament is Murray's third
since having hip surgery in January and his first on a hard court.
The week, the biggest singular story was the comeback of Andy Murray,
I think, and for me this is where the comeback starts.
I'm not saying it was like watching Murray of old. There were certainly elements
to his on-court demeanour, to his chasing down.
And how about that point?
And even his sudden realization "Actually, I can go for it."
Yeah, he was being completely defiant,
a complete nightmare with all his gesticulations
and shouting at himself.
You plant seeds of doubt in my head the whole time.
If you could tell, he was having the absolute time of his life.
-That's the thing, isn't it? -Shouting at everyone.
-He looked like he hated everybody. -Yeah.
But actually, he loves it.
Yeah!
Magical Murray somehow finds a way to win...
on his comeback to hard court tennis.
As expected, there was a fair amount of rust in his game,
but there was so much heart, determination and spirit
from the three-time Grand Slam champion.
And there have been a number of stages where I've thought,
"Not sure we're ever gonna be able to see him on a court again."
Because if he can't play, he's not gonna wanna humiliate himself,
but he certainly didn't humiliate himself this week, did he?
I think the Kyle Edmund one is the biggest benchmark for Andy Murray,
and the doggedness,
-it was absolute vintage. -Yes.
I mean, he barely needed commentary. He was in a dogfight
and that's where he wanted to be.
-Come on! -Look at what it means to him.
Andy Murray's hard court comeback continues.
He's taken out the British number one...
and he's done it with a good degree of passion and fire in his belly.
Washington was-- Got out there, and he was feeling good for a few days,
got through some tough matches. He beat Edmund in the second match
which was-- Unbelievable performance.
Those matches were three hours and he just wasn't ready for match
-after match for three hours. -I think the more he played,
the more the pain came back, so the interventions that he had,
the cortisone and the nerve ablation were, you know,
considered to be short-term fixes.
In the Marius Copil match, again, just visibly in so much pain in the match.
Oh, yes. That's a fine way to close it out.
And are we going to witness yet another Houdini act from Andy Murray?
He somehow got through the match. Don't ask me how, but he did.
Murray wins another marathon in Washington, D.C.
In many ways, it's a lovely shot, isn't it?
We've all missed it. He's certainly missed it.
Incredible performance. Incredible performance all week from Murray.
Over eight hours he has been on court.
It's been a tough comeback for him.
It is not an exaggeration to say it's prolonged,
-he is absolutely sobbing audibly... -Oh, it's a minute plus.
-...into a towel. -Pretty upsetting to listen to.
Yeah, I found it a very profound moment.
So, it's 5:09 a.m. in Washington.
I've managed to win my match today against Marius Copil.
Seven-six in the third after three hours.
I'm absolutely exhausted. My body hurts a lot.
I was really, really emotional at the end of the match, because...
I feel like this is the end for me.
My body just doesn't wanna do it anymore. And my mind...
doesn't wanna push through the pain barrier anymore.
I was just hoping I was gonna feel better than this after...
16, 17 months, but...
it was a really emotional night for me, because I felt like...
I'm coming to the end, and...
I'm really sad about that, because...
I really wanna keep going...
but my body is telling me, "No."
So...
It hurts.
And...
yeah, I'm sorry that...
I can't keep going.
Andy was completely emotionally and physically spent,
there was nothing left there anymore.
-Rich, how you doing? -Hey, Andy!
Hey Andy! A silly question, but how have the last few days been?
I was struggling, 'cause...
I was sort of-- Yeah, I was in a lot of pain.
But the thing is, when I take a few weeks off
and train and stuff, and rehab, like, my hip feels better, but,
you know, I don't know how again it's gonna respond
-to when I play matches again. -We were faced with...
he was never gonna be fully free of pain, and it was just the question of how much
does he want to keep playing?
How much does tennis mean to him and...
you know, what price does it come at?
I do remember getting him to commit to trying...
through to the end of the year.
I still had the feeling that he couldn't stop yet.
Been a year now of Groundhog Day,
and everyone was completely depleted by this stage.
There's no doubt about it that someone else needed to come in
with a different energy to kind of elevate things
and to try and pick things up.
Extend, love it.
Steady, love it. Come on, kid.
I am Bill Knowles. Ultimately, I see myself
as a reconditioning specialist. And that's helping athletes come back
following injury.
Yes, good! Harder right! Good!
One more step, down and back, well done. That was a huge coaching point.
I had a brilliant time training with Bill, I loved it. It was completely different.
And it was fun, and it was a distraction from the pain and the monotony
of the rehab and everything I'd been doing up to that point.
-Up! -Yeah, like, he was doing cool stuff,
he was doing gymnastics and kayaking and, yeah, strange things
and testing himself, and Andy just loves to test himself.
I don't know how it looked, but it was my first time
and I had a bad hip. So...
It felt all right.
Yeah, I just, I went for it, everything that he asked me to do,
although, some of it was-- It wouldn't be textbook training
and textbook methods, like... Yeah, I went for it.
I began my career studying physical education.
And I loved gym class growing up.
So, I keep it very elementary, very rudimentary
of these fundamental movement qualities...
that we teach little children to do at young ages.
Yet, just cause you're a pro athlete
doesn't mean you're good at those anymore.
Go back to the basics and oftentimes, they forget about their injury
and they just-- They get into feeling like an athlete again.
Up!
No.
Nobody is pain free.
So...
Will Andy be-- And he's right here, so I could just tell him. Okay?
Will you be at a level of stiffness and soreness that is an acceptable part
of the journey of 30-year-old athlete with an injury history? Yeah.
I think you have that good opportunity, I really do. And reality is, I think
that's it, I think anyone who just says, "We can make this all pain free,
it won't hurt in any way." That's all bullshit.
I mean, this morning, he woke up with a pain in his ass.
Now he knows how we all feel.
Yeah.
I need to get out of here...
We do need to exhaust all avenues on how to improve an athlete.
And you really have to be very, very open-minded
and look at many alternative strategies and professions to do that.
And Andy did see a lot of different specialists
for that reason. Trying different strategies
and avenues to help him get better.
The thing that was really hard emotionally for Andy is
that every single person brings hope and brings just some little flicker of,
you know, maybe this is it.
You have to think you're a bit mad...
trying to do similar things again and again and again,
not expecting to get the same result.
But, at the time, there's none of this stuff that's done
in bad faith ever.
Yeah, well, last time on the court meant last pain.
Yeah, when I was rehabbing without tennis, there was always a bit of hope,
there was a little bit of optimism and...
But I needed to be able to play tennis. That's what I was doing it all for.
I think he's got a good concept of..
"If this works...
I'm happy to push it to the very end." If this isn't gonna work,
he's probably confident to say "Then I know it's not going to work,
but I gave it everything I had."
I was just hoping that time...
was gonna help, and with all of the rehab and the work that I've been doing
with Bill, that...
you know, it was gonna get gradually better,
because that's what's always happened with injuries, you know,
throughout your career. You get injured, and over time, things feel better.
And I was hoping that the same thing was gonna happen.
You can make Andy feel better by him not doing very much
or doing certain exercises.
But the demands of the sports require that you bash that hip a lot
and that you sprint at very high speed. You jam on the brakes,
and you sprint back in the other direction for hours and hours on end.
And in reality, it was an unwinnable fight.
What did you feel?
Like I got zero enjoyment out of that at all.
I didn't enjoy that at all.
Like, none of it.
Yeah, but the thing is, as well for me, it that, there's no end point,
so, it's like, "Yeah, okay, brilliant." Like, I get back to competing.
And everybody knows that my hip is gonna be sore
when I start playing again.
You know, like, I should be, right now, throwing myself around the court
as much as I can to try and get myself ready for playing.
That's what I should be doing just now, but I'm not, I'm trying to protect my hip
for fucking nothing, for no reason.
Yeah, well, I mean, your short-term endpoint is...
is Melbourne, isn't it?
Short-term one. You know, and then you can...
kind of re-evaluate after that.
Say you flip the question and you say, "Right, that's it. Today, I'm done."
You know...
-I would feel a lot better. -Well, yeah. Yeah.
I'd feel a lot better.
Because what else should I be doing? There's nothing else I can do.
Like, if I decided to stop playing today, like, I would still go to Australia
and play in-- but, like, in the knowledge that it's like, it's not gonna be
-for that much longer. -Yeah, like you say, there's an endpoint.
Yeah. But it's like, okay, I can play in Australia, and I can...
whatever, you know, play for a couple of months
and then take a break and play at Wimbledon and stop, but...
Yeah, at least I would know that there's an endpoint.
He called me when I was putting Sophia to bed, and then went and called him back,
and it was just pretty bleak.
He always wanted someone to tell him...
to stop.
And I'd tried to explain to him that nobody could,
because it's no-one else's decision to make.
It's really hard, because I think he felt like
we were pushing him to keep going.
Because none of us were telling him to stop,
but in reality it's just, you know, we couldn't--
It's not our place to tell him to stop.
But I knew that's what he wanted, and I knew that's what
he was calling me for. And so, yeah, I just told him.
"You're clearly not happy. You said you'd give it until Christmas
and we're here."
It was the day that I was putting the Christmas tree up at home.
"Just call it a day."
Yeah, I wasn't desperate to make a decision, but I'd been wanting
to make it for a long time. And it's not just like...
Yeah, ultimately, a decision has to come from me, but it also...
you know, I feel like the decision impacts a lot of people
that are around me as well.
And I didn't...
Yeah, I didn't wanna give up...
without trying everything, because...
you know, I feel like I deserve, you know, to give my hip that chance,
anyway, but also...
yeah, I'd want everyone around me to know that I've literally tried
to do everything that I could to keep playing.
I was saying to the guys yesterday, and it seems like a dick thing to say,
but I really feel like I don't deserve this.
Like, I really feel like I don't.
Why?
Well, I guess...
because-- Yeah, because I feel like I've literally done everything
that I've been told, like...
Yeah, as much as I know, like, on the court I can be a pain...
and difficult, like, in lots of ways...
I think I've been easy to work with, because...
I'd do what I was told, like, in training. Like, I would...
You know, if the coach told me to play for four hours.
I would play for four hours. I might complain about it,
but I'd try my best. And like, the same thing through the rehab, like,
however many times, five or six times, like, going through that process, like...
I've tried my best through the whole process
that I feel like I deserved a better outcome.
Professional sport is not a long-term career.
It's extremely short, and that's really difficult.
Like, that's something that, like, I want to be doing this for...
I want to be doing it for a lot longer.
And it's been stopped because of...
something that, sort of, I can't control, that...
And I think because it's sport, people think, "Why is it important?
It's just-- it's just tennis. It's just a sport."
But it is for you. But it isn't for me. It's a lot more than that...
to me.
I mean we started playing tennis
when we were three or four years old.
You know, we went on this journey to be the best tennis players we could be.
You know, had all these ups and downs along the way and...
you know, all of a sudden for Andy to kind of be at the peak of his career...
and then all of a sudden, that's, like, taken away from him,
it's like, "Shit," you know, "I'm never gonna...
Maybe I'm never gonna find out what...
what's the most I could achieve out of tennis."
Go ahead.
Yeah, not great.
In the last, you know, couple of weeks since I decided
that I was going to say something, I mean, I have to,
I'm obviously-- I'm gonna say something today...
Yeah, I know that I'll get emotional and then, it's also-- I find it--
It's often difficult when that happens to remember, like,
what is it that you want to say.
But also, I change my mind all the time as well.
I need to say something today, I need to...
Or not. Or, you know, or I don't, or I don't announce anything. Or...
I'm really, really nervous just now.
I've been nervous the whole morning. Yeah.
Like, anxious. Like really anxious, I've got butterflies.
Yeah.
Yeah, when I got up and started walking around, I was like,
"Oh, actually, my hip doesn't feel that bad."
And it's like, when you're making a decision like that, it's kind of,
I would want it, like, to feel like my leg is really fucking sore.
It's like, "Fuck, am I-- Is that the right thing to do?"
You know, most likely it is. Most likely it is.
Can I have some more banana bread? That might...
Yeah, I'm just thinking about it.
Maybe I should have notes.
But the thing is, I know my subject unbelievably well, so it's not like
I fucking need to-- You know, maybe once I start talking I won't shut up.
Maybe I'll call Shane quickly and just tell him, like...
I'm thinking that I'm fucking making a mistake.
-Hello. -Shane-o.
-Yeah? -Yeah, I mean, you're right,
I don't have to-- I don't have to say definitively
what is it that I'm gonna do.
-All right, thanks, Shane-o. Cheers, bye. -Good luck.
I'm very edgy, I'm very on edge, just now.
Are you-- Is that obvious? Are you aware of that?
Yeah. Sort of, like, very clear-thinking and kind of very, like, sure of myself.
Sorry.
Yeah, so, I'm not feeling good.
You know, I've pretty much done everything that...
that I could to...
you know, to try and get my hip feeling better,
and it hasn't helped loads.
I said to my team, "Look, I think I can kind of get through this until Wimbledon."
That's where I would like to stop playing.
But I'm also not certain I'm able to do that.
Yeah, I think there's a chance of that, yeah, for sure.
I have an option to, you know, to have another operation, which...
you know, is...
you know, a little bit more...
kind of, severe than what I've had before, and having my hip resurfaced.
There's obviously no guarantees with that, and the reason for it,
for having an operation like that,
is not to return to professional sport, it's...
you know, it's just for a better quality of life.
Yeah, I like playing on this court, it's nice.
I feel the sides are so much more open, aren't they?
I always feel like this one feels bigger than all of the others.
Yeah. This feels-- Does feel bigger to me.
-But it's much smaller than Centre Court. -Yeah.
-Right, capacity-wise. -Yeah.
I guess you've just not got seats all the way around.
-It's a non-ticketed court. -Right.
So, like, anyone who buys a ground pass...
can come in. So, you get the proper tennis fans,
not just the rich people watching.
So, the atmosphere out here is much better than on the Centre Court.
A lot of backpackers when Andy's playing.
So, I'm hoping they put me on this court to play.
What would you want to be asked?
Played quite a lot of matches on here. I've played...
-Sam Querrey, 2016. -Alberto Martín.
-Souza. -Stanislas.
-João Souza, yeah. -Played him twice here.
Okay.
Melzer.
Feli Lopez, Llodra.
-Harrison? -Few lefties. Ryan Harrison.
I was seeing...
on Instagram today...
48 matches I've won here in Australia.
And...
It would be quite nice to get to 50.
Yeah.
I have a feeling I'm gonna struggle, like, emotionally today.
But, like, as I'm going to the court and, like, as I get on the court and stuff,
'cause normally, like, you know, you're fucking nervous and pumped,
I have a feeling I'm gonna feel differently today.
Sorry, sorry. Sorry for my little shit car...
I'm so sorry that I'm alive and a bender.
Just fuck off!
I'm going on a date with Carly.
Heya, Andy. We weren't gonna video call. I would've spruced myself up if I'd known.
I just got up, so...
I don't really dream that much, but I had one of those--
You probably would've heard it before, like, the speeding dream.
Yeah, where, like, I was, like, driving, and the car was just, like,
just going faster and faster, and my feet were, like, stuck under the pedals.
What would you not want to look back in years to come about today and regret?
You know, there's gonna be a lot of people there that--
You know, not just my team, like, family, ex-coaches, other players
and stuff that are gonna be there.
So, I'd want to-- I don't know, like, try and find a way of taking that all in.
You're not the type of person that I worry about losing focus,
because you're enjoying it too much.
I would be saying, spend time, like, taking a hit.
I think engage with the crowd.
You've always said you like it when the crowd gets on your side.
Get involved. Get pumped.
And like, "I've been committing to playing this style of tennis
that I enjoy," and again, as long as you do those things,
you won't come off with many regrets.
You might come off a bit pissed off if it doesn't go well,
but you won't have gone too far wrong.
Yeah.
As soon as you shake hands, you're gonna get called, pretty much.
Really?
I'll see you after.
-Smash it! -I'll try.
Make some noise for Andy Murray!
The first two sets were just depressing viewing really, they were what we've come
to expect from Andy Murray matches of late.
They've been labouring, they've been stumbling around the court,
unable to do what he used to do, while Roberto Bautista Agut played
a very nice brand of consistent tennis
-the way that he does. -Fifteen-love.
Then he dug into history, I felt.
It was almost like he went back into his career to drag out the sort of
performance that defined him.
To win set three on a tie-break, I do not know how.
He won set four on a tie-break. I do not know how.
And it was just-- It was so uplifting to witness him do what he does.
The impossible is looking distinctly possible...
here in Melbourne.
Conjuring up yet more magic.
And making them believers.
What a night, what an atmosphere, what a competitor.
No, he did used to feel there was a certain amount of animosity towards him,
and I think he would accept now that, you know, there's a lot of love out there
and that's really nice.
What he's done is just-- I have to pinch myself sometimes,
I can't believe that I've sat here and watched it happen.
It's a golden triumph...
for Andy Murray.
Andy Murray is a double Olympic gold medallist.
He's there! Straight sets again!
Wimbledon champion again!
And the Wimbledon Champion of 2016, Andy Murray.
Great Britain have done it in the most spectacular style!
Andy Murray, unbeaten in the Davis Cup.
More sporting history.
And then, as Murray served to stay in the match,
the crowd, sensing there would be few moments like this again, rose.
-The crowd saluting Andy Murray. -Thank you.
It's emotional. Tears in the eyes of Judy Murray.
And that emotion looking as though it's about to get the better
of Andy Murray.
Game, set and match, Bautista Agut.
I know he didn't win, but he did win.
That's how I ended up feeling about it. He gave everybody watching
and listening, and he gave himself, what he used to be.
Andy, if this was goodbye. It was the best goodbye
you could give any of us.
It reminded us of everything that you are.
You are an inspiration. You are a champion.
You have the heart the size of Australia.
We're gonna miss you, but I'm sure you're gonna miss this more.
Yeah, I mean, thanks to everyone for all the support.
My team, my family who are here supporting me.
And everyone, who's contributed to my career over the years.
This guy was actually my first coach when I came on tour.
-You've done very well. -Considering. It's impressive.
It was awkward, I'm not gonna lie. I think everyone felt like it was like,
"Oh, I think, that's-- I don't know anyone--"
And then I was, like, standing there thinking, "There's no way this guy's
-gonna stop here, this isn't it." -I don't know, maybe I'll see you again...
I'll...
I'll do everything possible.
Yeah, I'll do everything possible to try.
Ultimately, it's not, like, in his DNA to give up or quit. It's just not.
And that is why he's gone through this whole process,
because he couldn't allow himself to say, "That's it,"
and "This has got the better of me, this has defeated me."
The best thing arrived-- Rusty get inside. Rusty, Rusty.
Get inside. There will be a few amusing letters in here...
from people that are saying they're gonna fix my hip.
"I'm writing to you wondering if you've tried
alternate methods of healing.
I gain considerate benefit from the following homeopathic remedies."
It was absolutely by no means a fabrication that he was gonna retire.
Like, he had decided to retire, and he decided that in December.
Then he changed his mind.
Andy changed his mind again.
He started getting all geeky about the surgery,
and taking huge interest in Bob Bryan, and following all his matches,
and asking people "How's he moving? How's he looking out there?"
Like, you know, getting all sorts of info on it.
We gotta give it to my brother here, it's his first win with a metal hip.
So, I think he's the first guy to ever do that. It's a good effort.
And then he spoke to Bob Bryan's surgeon, and yeah, he started to talk about it.
Having gone through the skin, we go down through the fat
and the deep muscular layers.
We're now impacting the head down as far...
I find that funny...
that... that they're literally using a hammer.
At that point, we know that the head is fully seated.
We can reduce the head into the socket with external rotation of the leg.
Then they just pop it back in. Just pop it.
We check that the position of the components is good...
and check that there is a good range of movement
and that there is no impingement anywhere.
I'm pumped to get it done now, but having watched it, I'm like,
aware of the significance of the operation now.
It's a big operation.
It's not just a little scratch and tiny little hole.
It's, like, it's pretty graphic.
He'd always said, "Oh, that is a good option for me when I finish."
And then he started saying, "Oh, well, maybe I could have it soon."
And then it was like, "Oh, but you need to retire at Wimbledon. You know,
that needs to be the place that you say bye."
So, by having that surgery now you are essentially robbing yourself
of the opportunity to retire at Wimbledon. And then...
yeah, I think he'd started to think, like...
"Maybe I could play at Wimbledon with a metal hip."
Hello.
Hey, Bryan.
Yes.
Thanks. Thanks, bye.
I'm so gone, right now.
A week on Thursday.
'Cause I'm finding it quite a big deal. I, like...
Waiting another ten days and like...
fretting over it and thinking, "Did I-- Have I made the right decision?
Am I going with the right person?" Or whatever.
Like, right now I'm sure.
And in a week's time I might be like...
You know, I'll have the other surgeons on at me,
messaging me about it.
I was actually thinking, genuinely, when I was walking in here,
I was thinking about what that feeling, what my hip is gonna feel like
when I just walk, like...
What that feels like, because I've forgotten what that's like.
Yeah.
Especially if it starts squeaking.
Your pain is almost over. How about that?
-It's good news. -Yeah, it's like an hour away.
I really hope that's the case.
-Yeah. -That's certain.
-Good luck. -Yeah, all right.
-I'll see you in there. -Yeah, try your best.
Put this and turn your back.
-See you later. -Bye.
-My hip's pretty sore, trust me. -Yeah.
It's like...
It's probably not a good idea to be running around the tennis court.
Have we got that on camera?
Say it again.
-Andy just said about... -"It's not a good idea to be running
-round a tennis court." -That's quote, unquote.
Andy Murray...
12:30, 28th of January.
2019.
Andy Murray, 4:30, 28th of January, it's not the same, is it?
Yeah, once I decided to have the operation, I wanted to have it done
as soon as possible, because...
Yeah, I mean, ultimately, the sooner I can find out whether
I'm able to play or not, or how I'm gonna be, for me...
yeah, the better.
There was a lot of focus on...
-a matter of days... -Yes.
...potentially effecting whether
-you could play again. -Yeah.
Well, yes, I mean, it's three days.
So, three days sooner than, what?
Than what I might. And that's what, I guess...
You know, yeah, for most people, like, that doesn't seem like a lot,
but for athletes, like, it is. Like, three or four days is big.
So, this is all about competing again.
No.
No, it's not all about competing again.
That would be my dream, like, I would love that.
I would love that to be the case.
That thought of "Look, Andy, enough's enough," has been in my head...
probably for the last year, really.
Of saying, "Look, you don't need to keep doing this to yourself,
your legacy is there, just call it a day."
But his ability to influence...
my thought process is, again, pretty astonishing really.
Because you've only got to then go into work the next day
and hear him say, "No, no, I think I can do this."
That goes out the window,
"Yeah, you're right. I think you can do it, too.
You're exactly right."
I think you look for miracles, that's what you do.
And when you've got somebody who really wants to achieve
and is going all in...
then everybody buys in to the hope...
that something magical can happen.
The brilliant thing about having a sore hip,
after this operation, is that I can hug Shane.
And he can't like, you know, get away from me
because, otherwise, he'll hurt my hip. So, like, I can do that and he can't...
can't force his way out of my hug.
Someone hold my hand.
-Just a little touch, and then swing. -I love it when you hold my hand.
Shane-o was saying to me sort of off-the-record
that he really wants me to come back to playing,
because it'll make him look good.
I think he realizes there's a lot more happening
in his world just rather than tennis, because he's been away from it
for a few months, and he's got a young family,
and I think he's going to enjoy that, and I think he'll enjoy them
coming to see him play.
I think, if he can get to play singles again to a level,
I think you'll find a different guy, I believe.
Cause I do think he's more relaxed.
I see a young man who looks happy with himself and happy in his life.
What are your views on playing tennis, though, at the moment?
If I was to go back to playing tennis, singles...
obviously, the loading and stuff on the joint...
-is obviously gonna be pretty high. -Yup.
And what I would hate is to be in a position in like five years, say...
-Of having to change it. -Yeah, because I'm happy just now,
and like, I'm pain-free and stuff. It's a difficult one, because I've been
quite conflicted. 'Cause I really would love
-to be able to play tennis again. -Yeah.
And I actually think that...
with how I feel, I do think I will be able to do it.
What if I said that if you go back to playing first-class tennis,
I think you've got a 15-percent chance that in the first seven years,
you could destroy the hip.
All right? Because that's what it's like. It's not you will, you won't.
It's chances. And for seven years of tennis, would you take that risk?
Here we bloody well go again.
-A bit more rehab. -More rehab. Less tennis,
-that's what we're all about. -Yeah.
I get nothing out of doing this, whatsoever.
I get no joy.
What?
Ow.
-Oh, fucking hell, all right, here we go. -Here we go, come on.
How many reps am I doing in the first one?
Ten. 15. Ten.
Ten.
I feel like I work hard and have always worked hard...
but all of this stuff that I've done over the years is also what's got me
into the position that I'm in just now, where I'm...
At 29 years old, I have a completely destroyed hip.
If I think about playing, it's not giving me any motivation
to train or go and do the rehab stuff.
I always thought that tennis helped me be happy, but...
I'm just happy not being in pain now.
When you're trying to get into the top few positions in the world
and stuff, like, you know, you need to give, like,
everything to the sport pretty much. I'm not convinced that that's something
that I really want to go through again.
You know, sometimes we say things that we want other people to hear.
We don't really believe them ourselves. Sometimes we do. We all do that.
I don't know, I think my gut is telling me that he has unfinished business.
He loves what he does, and if you watch him, he's-- he knows
what everybody is doing still. He knows all the results,
he knows everything that's going on. He's still following the, you know,
what's happening with the player council and all. You know, all the stuff that's--
You don't do that if you're ready to let it go,
-so he's not fooling me with that one. -Hello.
Hi. Do you like Daddy's hat?
She's too cute.
We all said it. Like, he needs to just hang in there,
because once he realizes
what it's like to be on a tennis court again,
and once he remembers, and it's been so long,
since he's been on a tennis court without pain,
we all know he wants it that much still.
If you told him, "This time next year you'll be playing-- You'll be ranked
in the top ten," yeah, he's biting your...
hand off for that. Sure. 100 percent. You wouldn't even finish your sentence,
he would've taken that.
Oh, my God.
I was starting to worry for a minute that you'd forgotten how to play tennis
with doing all this rehab, and you'd actually turned crap.
-It's coming back quick. -It's coming back.
It's kind of coming back.
So, how's it feeling?
Yeah, it feels good. Feels good.
I have no, like, post-practice soreness or, you know--
What's your speed on the court? You said something about,
-you knew all your pre-operative speeds. -So, the fastest that I ever ran
was 7.6 meters a second.
But that was-- but, like, last year, I wasn't doing that.
I was struggling to get-- I was running at like, 6.5, 6.6 meters a second.
6.9.
Carry on.
-Yeah. -Good luck. Do I need to get the hat
to come to Wimbledon?
Do you need to get a hat?
We've got to mention Andy Murray, who of course is gonna be back in action
for the first time since we saw him in January at the Australian Open
in doubles this afternoon with Feliciano Lopez.
Did you ever think you'd see him back this early on a court,
and how excited are you?
There is only one show in town, here at Queens, what is now this evening,
and that is the return of this man. The return of perhaps...
Daddy!
Murray contributes! The crowd goes wild.
Murray and Lopez take the first.
Come on, Murray! That is outrageous!
Are you kidding me?
It's... match point.
Andy Murray makes a winning return to competitive action.
I know it's only back in the doubles, but it is clearly part of a process
in which he intends to try to make a full comeback as a singles player.
No pain.
I feel like I've won.
Just happy that I'm not in pain,
so, I don't...
It doesn't matter whether someone wants me to win Wimbledon,
or come back to playing singles, or whatever.
Like, if I do, great. If I don't, that's also fine.
But it was nice to get the win tonight. Nice to get the win.
I feel like this is where Andy's his most dangerous now.
-Great play! -He's loose, he's happy,
he's got nothing to prove and he's got no pressure,
and that could make him capable of amazing things.
And there it is.
It's Lopez who does it,
it is Murray who they cheer for most of all.
But this happy return of Andy Murray continues.
He will play in the final of the men's doubles.
He's been playing unbelievably. Frankly, he could be playing singles.
I don't believe it. That's in, too.
I think they'll check it.
-Nine-four. -Yeah, no challenge,
that's a clean winner.
Slapped it down the line. Look, the team can't believe it.
What a day!
The 2019 Fever-Tree champions, Feliciano Lopez
and Andy Murray!
Man, we are so happy that you're back on a tennis court.
So, I'm here in Cincinnati.
It's the night before I play my first singles match
since I had the operation.
We'll see what happens when I'm out there, but it's just brilliant
to get this opportunity again. I mean, six months ago...
I came to accept that I might never...
get to compete again.
You know, it's been a long kind of couple of years
to get to this point.
My family and my team have kept me going at times when, you know,
I probably didn't want to. I was close to calling it a day
a number of times, so big thanks to them...
for keeping me going and, yeah, I'm excited.
Let's see what the future holds, but...
I think it's gonna-- I think it's gonna go well.