What would you do if you got a text message from Andy Murray at 2:30 a.m.? In the case of his hip surgeon early Monday morning, she answered within five minutes.

During a pre-tournament press conference Monday at the Nature Valley International in Eastbourne, where he is playing doubles with Brazil’s Marcelo Melo, Murray was asked if he had spoken to his surgeon about how his hip held up during his title run at Queen’s. That led to this light-hearted exchange with reporters.

“She came to watch last week. Got some tickets for her on the day where I played the two matches, quarter-final, semi-final matches. And then messaged her yesterday when I got in, actually from when I got in from dinner at like 2:30 in the morning and she responded within five minutes,” Murray said. “I was, like, ‘God, she’s supposed to be operating tomorrow morning. I don’t want to be the first one on the list Monday’.”

Murray returned from a January right hip surgery last week at the Fever-Tree Championships. But not only did the Scot play, he captured the doubles title alongside Feliciano Lopez at The Queen’s Club, where he previously won five singles trophies. The 32-year-old hasn’t heard his surgeon’s thoughts on how he looked, though.

“I haven’t actually asked her about that, because obviously when I had gone to see her for a checkup and to chat, obviously she sees you walking in, but she’s not seeing all of the training and things that you’re doing. So it’s just sort of going off what you’re saying and what your team is telling her,” Murray said. “But obviously she got a chance to watch a few days ago. I haven’t actually spoken to her since she’s seen me play. I think she’s just happy that my hip doesn’t hurt really anymore.”

It was Murray’s first ATP Tour doubles title since 2011 Tokyo, which he won with brother Jamie Murray. It was the former World No. 1’s first singles title since 2017 Dubai.

“I went out for dinner with Feli the other night, because when I won that tournament in Dubai, I was trying to get my team to — I said before the week, ‘If I win the tournament, I want to do a skydive’,” Murray recalled. “All of my team rejected it and were, like, ‘No chance we’re doing that’. Obviously that turned out to be the last tournament that I won, and I had a lot of health problems after that, because I had the issue with my elbow straight afterwards in Indian Wells, and then I had the issues with my hip quite soon afterwards.

“I was saying to them, you’ll need to make sure you enjoy those moments, because you don’t know what’s around the corner and what might happen. And at the time you sometimes forget that winning a tournament like that is really, really special.”

Preparing for Tuesday’s Eastbourne opener against top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah (whom Murray and Lopez defeated at The Queen’s Club), the Scot and Melo were able to practise for less than an hour Monday. “Me and Feli were playing quite conventional doubles, and he expects to play a bit more I-formation and a lot more of moving around at the net and stuff,” Murray said. “So that will be again a different sort of challenge tomorrow, but it can also be very effective if done well.

“He’s good fun, a pretty laid-back guy. Hopefully we’ll do well.”

More Murray News
Murray To Partner Melo Tuesday In Eastbourne
Murray/Lopez Complete Dream Week At The Queen’s Club

A reporter asked Murray whether he would bungee jump off Beachy Head, a chalk headland in the area, if he lifts the trophy again this week.

“I’d be up for it, but I’m not going to do it on my own,” Murray said. “I’d do it if all my team were up for it, although I don’t know if my hip surgeon would be particularly happy with me trying that.”

If in doubt, Murray knows he can always text her at 2:30 a.m. and ask.

The Fever-Tree Championships celebrated its distinction as the ATP 500 Tournament of the Year on Saturday at The Queen’s Club, as Mark Philippoussis presented Tournament Director Stephen Farrow with the 2018 ATP Awards trophy.

Players selected the Fever-Tree Championships as a Tournament of the Year for a fifth time last season. The tournament previously won in the ATP World Tour 500 category in 2015-16 and the 250 category in 2013-14.

“The ATP-500 category is full of excellent tournaments, so for the players to vote the Fever-Tree Championships as their favourite event is immensely satisfying for everyone involved, particularly our tireless tournament team and The Queen’s Club grounds staff who maintain our magnificent grass courts year after year,” said Farrow. “I’d like to thank the players for voting for us, and our spectators, sponsors and media partners for their support.

“The Lawn Tennis Association has a vision to open up tennis in Britain to anyone with an interest, from players of all abilities and backgrounds to its millions of fans. As part of that vision, we want to entice people who have never experienced live tennis to come along to our tournaments and see it for themselves.”

The grass-court event, staged for more than a century at The Queen’s Club in London, increased its centre court capacity by more than 30 per cent over the past two years. In 2018, the tournament welcomed Fever-Tree, the premium mixer drinks company, as its title sponsor.

The tournament awards, voted annually by ATP players, recognise the leading standards set across events on the ATP Tour. The BNP Paribas Open and Intrum Stockholm Open were named Tournament of the Year respectively in the Masters 1000 and 250 categories.

#NextGenATP Aussie Alexei Popyrin made a good start to his pursuit of a Wimbledon main draw berth on Monday, defeating Argentine Federico Coria 6-2, 7-5 to reach the second round of qualifying.

Popyrin, currently in 11th place in the ATP Race To Milan, is trying to make a move to better his chances of qualifying for November’s Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan. Earlier this year, the 19-year-old advanced to the third round of the Australian Open, where he lost to eventual semi-finalist Lucas Pouille in five sets.

Popyrin wasn’t the only Aussie to make it through; all eight Aussie men in action Monday moved into the second round. Alex Bolt, who also reached the third round in Melbourne, outlasted #NextGenATP Italian Jannik Sinner 2-6, 7-5, 12-10 in two hours and 36 minutes. That was the longest third set, by games, of the day.

Bolt qualified for Wimbledon for the first time last year, losing to Kyle Edmund in the main draw. He will next play Austrian Dennis Novak.

The other Aussies who battled on in the first round were James Duckworth, Andrew Harris, Jason Kubler, Marc Polmans, Akira Santillan and John-Patrick Smith.

German Dustin Brown, who advanced to the MercedesCup quarter-finals with a win against reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion Alexander Zverev, beat China’s Zhe Li 7-6(2), 6-3 in one hour and 21 minutes. Brown has competed in the Wimbledon main draw seven times, and he defeated Rafael Nadal at the grass-court Grand Slam in 2015.

Fifth seed Fernando Verdasco was on the brink of defeat Monday in the first round the Nature Valley International, losing the first set against Aussie John Millman and dropping the first 10 points of the second set. But the Eastbourne crowd began urging him on, and things changed for the Spaniard.

Verdasco turned the tide on Millman, defeating the World No. 58 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-1 after two hours and 32 minutes. The veteran lefty saved 11 of the 12 break points in his first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting against the unseeded Aussie.

Millman took a 4-2 lead in the second set, moving to within just two service holds of victory. But Verdasco claimed 10 of the match’s final 11 games to set a second-round clash against wild card Jay Clarke or Argentine Leonardo Mayer.

It was a successful day for the Americans in Eastbourne, with three men from the United States advancing on the grass. Taylor Fritz defeated British qualifier and this year’s NCAA singles champion, Paul Jubb, 6-2, 6-3 in exactly one hour.

The 2018 Next Gen ATP Finals qualifier struck 12 aces and won 50 per cent of his return points against the 19-year-old Jubb. Fritz is currently World No. 42, just two spots off his career-best ATP Ranking, and he will try to upset top seed Guido Pella in the second round.

Former World No. 11 Sam Querrey battled past Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 7-6(4) in one hour and 26 minutes. The victory came in the American’s first match since the second week of April in Houston, where he made the semi-finals. Querrey will next face fourth seed Dusan Lajovic.

Steve Johnson, the 2016 Eastbourne champion, won a battle of Americans against reigning New York Open champion Reilly Opelka, withstanding the 21-year-old’s 13 aces to triumph 7-6(4), 6-3 in one hour and 21 minutes.

Johnson is coached by Craig Boynton, who also coaches Hubert Hurkacz, Johnson’s next opponent. Hurkacz upset seventh seed Marco Cecchinato 6-4, 6-4 in 66 minutes.

Defending champion Damir Dzumhur made a strong start to his Turkish Airlines Open Antalya campaign on Monday, defeating Australian Matthew Ebden 6-4, 7-5 to reach the second round. 

The fifth seed is trying to become the first player to retain the Antalya trophy. This is the third edition of the ATP 250 tournament, which was won by Yuichi Sugita in 2017. This was Dzumhur and Ebden’s first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting, and Dzumhur, despite winning just two more points overall in the match, converted three of the seven break points he earned to advance after one hour and 22 minutes. 

Dzumhur is trying to win an ATP Tour title for the third consecutive year. In 2017, he lifted his first two tour-level trophies, in St. Petersburg and Moscow, en route to reaching a career-high of No. 23 in the ATP Rankings. In the next round, the 27-year-old will face Turkish wild card Altug Celikbilek, who upset former World No. 10 Ernests Gulbis 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in one hour and 53 minutes. It was the first ATP Tour main draw match in World No. 443 Celikbilek’s career.

#NextGenATP Frenchman Ugo Humbert also moved into the second round. The 20-year-old beat Argentine Federico Delbonis 6-3, 7-5 in 78 minutes. It is the sixth seed’s sixth tour-level victory of the year, and he entered 2019 with just two wins in his career. He will face another #NextGenATP player in 19-year-old Miomir Kecmanovic, who advanced on Sunday. Both men are currently inside the Top 10 in the ATP Race To Milan.

Indian Prajnesh Gunneswaran eliminated former World No. 8 Janko Tipsarevic 6-0, 7-6(6) to set a clash with Italian Lorenzo Sonego and Aussie Bernard Tomic eliminated seventh seed Andreas Seppi 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. Tomic, who struck 24 aces — including six in the first game of the match — will next play German Peter Gojowczyk.

More Results
Peter Gojowczyk def. [W] Ergi Kirkin 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-2
Bradley Klahn def. [Q] Steve Darcis 6-3, 6-2
[Q] Viktor Troicki def. Jozef Kovalik 7-6(3), 6-4
Roberto Carballes Baena def. [Q] JC Aragone 6-4, 7-6(2)

Roland Garros Champions Eliminated
Jonathan Erlich and Artem Sitak beat Roland Garros champions Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies, the top seeds, 6-3, 7-6(3) to reach the second round. Krawietz and Mies also lost in the first round of last week’s NOVENTI OPEN.

Second seeds Marcelo Demoliner and Divij Sharan avoided the upset bug, defeating wild cards Tuna Altuna and Cem Ilkel 7-5, 6-2.