Pain-free Murray not ruling out Wimbledon doubles return

Andy Murray hopes to compete again in professional tennis after revealing he has no pain in his hip following a second surgery, and did not rule out a possible Wimbledon return in the doubles.

Before the Australian Open, the former world number one announced plans to end his career at this year's Wimbledon amid continued struggles with his hip, though an emotional Murray conceded his first-round defeat to Roberto Bautista Agut in Melbourne could serve as his last match.

In an effort to potentially continue his career, Murray underwent a hip resurfacing operation five weeks ago, and the three-time grand slam champion expressed cautious optimism over how his recovery has gone.

"I want to continue playing," said Murray, speaking at Queen's Club to announce a new partnership with sportswear brand Castore. "I said that in Australia. The issue is I don't know if it's possible.

"I'm a lot happier now than I was 12 months ago and since having the op. I have no pain in the hip. I was in pain for a long time. The rehab has been slow, it's been going pretty well. I need to wait and see how things progress.

"If it's possible, I'd love to compete again." 

Speaking later to Sky Sports, Murray suggested he could yet compete at the All England Club in doubles, inspired by Bob Bryan, who made his return from the same surgery at the Australian Open.

He said: "I was struggling for a long time, you could see that in just the way I was walking around, I was limping everywhere I was going, it was tough and in that press conference [in Melbourne] I kind of spoke from my heart and opened up.

"It'd been a tough 18 months, I felt much better after I'd done it and obviously had the operation now and I feel good.

"Rehab is never loads of fun. It's quite tedious, a little bit boring and I've done a bunch of different stints of rehab over the last 18 months, but because I'm seeing progress and because I'm not in pain, it's motivating me each day to be doing it because I'm noticing that things are getting better and I don't have to limp anymore and my hip feels good, which hadn't been the case the last 18 months.

"I'd been doing rehab and my hip was still really sore. Now I'm seeing some good signs and feel positive about the outcome."

Asked if Wimbledon would be too soon for him, Murray added: "For singles it would be, can't say for sure but doubles, I mean Bob Bryan was back playing at the Australian Open after five and a half months.

"Wimbledon comes pretty much five and a half months after I had my operation and I communicate with him daily about the rehab he was doing and things that worked and didn't and he said he feels like he could have done things a bit better at the beginning of rehab, so maybe I can cut a bit of time off that."