NO CHANCE
Andy Murray rules out US Open singles bid despite Wimbledon victory with Serena Williams
ANDY MURRAY has ruled out trying to be fit to play singles at the US Open.
Murray continued his impressive comeback from hip surgery by helping Serena Williams power through to the third round of the Mixed Doubles at Wimbledon.
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His displays, on the back of winning the doubles at Queens last month, have led to a feeling the former world No1 would attempt to play at Flushing Meadow this September in singles.
But the 32-year-old dismissed the idea and said: "I think it's pretty unlikely just in terms of timing. I spoke to my team a bit about that yesterday.
"Just a lot of stuff I need to get done physically, get myself stronger.
"The amount of work I need to do on the court to get ready for singles, the amount of work I need to put in off the court to get myself strong enough to play best-of-five sets, it's still quite a ways away unfortunately.
"I would love to play. I need to look, like, pretty long-term with this.
"I don't want to be having to go through another big operation in a few years' time.
"I want to make sure the operation I've had lasts for as long as possible.
"To give it the best chance, I need to make sure that, I'm physically, you know, really strong before I get back on the singles court."
NOT RUSHING FOR FLUSHING
Murray won the US Open in 2012, beating Novak Djokovic in an epic five-set final to secure his first Grand Slam title.
He has since added two Wimbledon crowns, the ATP Tour Finals, Olympic Gold and the Davis Cup.
But he is simply unable to tell when exactly he will be ready for the rigours of singles tennis.
He added: "I think playing matches is always good.
"Just physically, it's just being on a match court is different. Doesn't matter how much practicing and training you do. I prepared well for kind of the grass season. I played a decent amount of tennis, trained hard.
"Once you start playing matches again, things tend to hurt a little bit at the beginning. You build up that robustness by competing, playing matches kind of week after week, day after day.
"That's hopefully what I'll be able to do in these next few months once I get back on the match court, hopefully stay there, not have to take too many breaks.
"I don't know exactly. I said this at the beginning of the grass season: I don't want to put a timeframe on it.
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"You guys want a timeframe. I can't give you an exact timeframe because I don't know how long it's going to take for me to physically get to that level.
"I know some people might like it to have taken five months or six months, but it's going to take more time than that, unfortunately.
"Whether that's nine months or 12 months or 18 months, I don't know. I'll do my best to make it as soon as I can. I can't give an exact timeframe on this. It's tough."
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