Andy Murray labeled ‘story of the week’ as Nadal comparison made

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Andy Murray has been the “story of the week” at the Australian Open and can be the same at Wimbledon, Bob Bryan has claimed. The American doubles legend underwent hip resurfacing surgery in August 2018 – and helped to convince the Scot to undergo the same op the following year.

And Bryan, 44, watched in wonder as the Scot played over 14 hours of singles here to reach the third round here only four years after fearing his career was over.

“It’s pretty much the story of the week, in my opinion,” he said. “Four or five years ago, he was told he would never play pro tennis again. Now he’s playing the most physical matches of the week, and backing it up with incredible recovery.

“I talked to Ivan Lendl, I said ‘how’s the hip?’ He’s like ‘No problem at all’. And that’s what I’m feeling: the surgical hip, there’s zero problems.

“The biggest thing is finding the balance because you have one new hip and you have one old hip and how your body kind of gets used to that and how the lower back feels.

“I think that was an adjustment for him at the start but he’s got to figure it out. He’s got the best team in the world of guys behind him and he works hard and he does the research and no one’s smarter than him. I think you’re gonna see some good years out of him, coming up.”

Murray has set the target of being seeded by Wimbledon to avoid big names in the opening rounds of his home Grand Slam.

“He’s played a very physical career, he doesn’t have the hugest weapons out there and he’s done a lot of running just like Nadal has done,” Bryan added. “I think he’s gonna have a great Wimbledon. He knows how to play on grass and I think that’s the place where he really wants to do some damage.”

Bryan, who is playing in the Legends doubles in Melbourne with his brother Mike, gave help and advice to Murray before and after his surgery but not any more.

“He’s an expert now!” said the 16-time Grand Slam champion. “He doesn’t need my help. He knows it a lot better than me. I didn’t watch any YouTube videos before I went in there. I just said, ‘Just cut it and let’s go’. He knew every little part of the procedure and he had already talked to every athlete that had it before.

“I went in for a scope and the doctor said, this is unscopeable. And I think it was like Andy, just no cartilage left. And in that case, you have to go for the metal implant surgery and the doctor was optimistic. He said, ‘I got an NBA player back, I’ve had a baseball player back, I think I can do it’. And it was really the only option. And I think that it was a last resort. I think that was Andy’s case as well.

“What do you have to lose at this stage? You’re pretty much written off. For me, it just gave me new goals and something to work for. For Andy, he is doing it on the singles court which is a different situation altogether. But I told them, for doubles, this will be good. For singles, I don’t know, that’s up to you to blaze the trail there. And he’s blazing it amazingly.”

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