Can Andy Murray follow suit of the big 3?

Andy Murray made his comeback in Queens after almost a year of not playing competitively. He lost in his first match against Kyrgios, took a wildcard in Eastbourne and lost to Kyle Edmund after beating Stan Wawrinka.

He then announced his withdrawal from Wimbledon, citing that his body was not ready for best of set matches. As a result, his ranking has plummeted in the 800s and the Brit will now either have to rely on his protected rankings to get direct entry into tournaments or hope they have wildcards ready for him.

Is he the next in line?

After Federer and Nadal ad less than optimal seasons in 2016, many expected the pair to slowly fade out of dominance and for Novak and Andy to take their place. The opposite of that has happened. From the Australian Open in 2017 till this year’s French Open, Federer and Nadal split 3 slams each, while Novak just won the most recent slam at Wimbledon, beating Nadal in an epic 5 setter that stretched on till 10-8 in the fifth and went on for over 5 hours.

This obviously begs the question: Is Andy Murray next in line to win a slam? Perhaps at the upcoming US Open?

No, unless he drastically improves in a very short span of time

Andy Murray is coming back from a hip injury that threatened to end his career. While his matches back have been encouraging, they’ve just been that: Encouraging. Not to mention that he has been out of action for almost a year. He also withdrew from a slam because he felt he wasn’t fit enough to play in it. While that decision will likely pay its dividends down the road, it also indicates that Murray is rusty, if you didn’t get the message from his first ever loss to Kyrgios and losing to Edmund, a player who is more suited to clay (However by the looks of it he seems to be an all surface player; he does, however, perform vastly better at clay).

More from Andy Murray

Playing at the Citi Open in Washington will definitely help his form. Murray will also be looking to play both hard court masters in the North American swing to help get as many matches as he can under his belt.

While expectations for a comeback will be very high, it’ll be best to temper one’s expectation, as hip injuries are incredibly tricky. Several players have come back from hip injuries to never be the same player again: Examples include Gustavo Kuerten and Lleyton Hewitt.

Next: What comes next for Stan Wawrinka?

That being said, we hope for the best for the 3-time slam champ on his comeback journey.

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