Tennis-Murray resumes training in bid to play at Wimbledon

FILE PHOTO: Tennis - Queen's Club Championships - The Queen's Club, London, Britain - June 19, 2024 Britain's Andy Murray in action during his men's singles second match against Australia's Jordan Thompson Action Images via Reuters/Paul Childs/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) - Former Wimbledon champion Andy Murray has resumed training after back surgery in the lead-up to the grasscourt Grand Slam but the 37-year-old said he would take as much time as possible before deciding on his participation.

Men's governing body the ATP announced on Sunday in a since deleted social media post that Murray would miss the tournament but Britain's Davis Cup captain Leon Smith said that no decision had been made.

"I'm going to wait until the last minute to see if I'm going to be able to play and I've earned the right to do that," Murray told British media.

"This isn't clearcut where I'm 100% going to be ready to play or there's a 0% chance I can play. That's the situation. I would say it's probably more likely that I'm not able to play singles right now."

Murray, twice Wimbledon singles champion, hopes to play doubles with his brother Jamie at the All England Club.

Following a victory over Alexei Popyrin at the Queen's Club Championships in his 1,000th tour-level singles contest, Murray withdrew due to injury when he trailed 4-1 in the opening set of his second-round match against Jordan Thompson last week.

Murray was diagnosed as having a spinal cyst and said he was told to have surgery immediately.

"I was given multiple different timelines for how long (recovery) would take and was also made aware that if I decided to try to play Wimbledon there's some risk associated with that," Murray added.

"It's whether or not I'm willing to take that risk. But also even with there potentially being a risk, I've had the operation and it has gone really well.

"... Because of what I put into the sport over the last however many years, I'd at least like to go out playing a proper match where I'm at least competitive, not what happened at Queen's."

Murray resurrected his career after having hip-resurfacing surgery in 2019 but has struggled to go deep in top tournaments and recently had to deal with an ankle injury sustained at the Miami Open in March.

The Scottish double Olympic gold medallist previously said he was unlikely to continue playing next season and it would be a fitting end to his glittering career if he bowed out at the All England Club or the Paris Games.

Wimbledon begins on Monday and the Olympic tennis competition starts on July 27.

(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)