Andy Murray to return from hip injury at Rosmalen event one week after French Open in bid to make Wimbledon

British No 2 revals plan to make his comeback at the Dutch grass court event nearly 11 months after his last tour event

Andy Murray will return at the Rosmalen 250 in June after nearly 11 months out of the game (Getty)

Andy Murray is set to make his return to the men’s tour in the Netherlands in the week immediately after the French Open. The former world No 1, who has not played in a tournament for nearly nine months because of a hip injury, has entered the grass-court event at Rosmalen, near ’s-Hertogenbosch, which begins on 11 June.

As soon as he had surgery on his right hip early in January Murray targeted the grass-court season for his competitive return. He could still start his comeback in Challenger events before Rosmalen, but the Dutch tournament looks almost certain to be his first tour-level competition.

Rosmalen, which stages a women’s event in the same week, is a “250” tournament – signifying 250 ranking points for the champion – which is the lowest level on the main tour. The following week’s Fever-Tree Championships at Queen’s Club will offer 500 points to the champion, while the nine Masters 1000 tournaments, such as this week’s event in Miami, offer the most ranking points.

“I am looking forward to getting back on the grass and to play in Rosmalen for the first time,” Murray said. “I’ve heard lots of good things about the tournament and the courts are meant to be very good. It’s the perfect way for me to prepare for Wimbledon.”

Marcel Hunze, the tournament director at Rosmalen, said: “In the past years we invested heavily in the quality of the tournament and the grass courts. The participation of Wimbledon champion, and grass court specialist, Andy Murray is a great reward.”

Marin Cilic and Alexander Zverev were the highest ranked players to enter Rosmalen last year, when 34-year-old Gilles Muller beat 38-year-old Ivo Karlovic in a final between two of the biggest servers in the game. It was the oldest combined age of two finalists on the men’s tour for 40 years and an indication of how big servers can dominate on grass, especially at a time of the year when players are still adjusting to the surface.

Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo won the doubles in Rosmalen last year and went on to become Wimbledon champions. No singles champions at Rosmalen have ever gone on to win at Wimbledon in the same year, though Michael Stich, Richard Krajicek and Lleyton Hewitt all lifted both titles at different stages of their careers. Pat Rafter, the champion in 2000, went on to reach the final at the All England Club the following month.

Murray has not played since Wimbledon last year (Getty)

Murray is stepping up his rehabilitation this week by practising at Patrick Mouratoglou’s academy near Nice. On social media he has posted a photograph of himself on the court hitting with Aidan McHugh, a 17-year-old Glaswegian he has been mentoring.

At the Australian Open in January McHugh became the first British boy to reach the semi-finals of a junior Grand Slam event for five years.

Murray first felt his hip problem in his French Open semi-final against Stan Wawrinka last summer. Although struggling physically he still reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, but has not played competitively since then.

The 30-year-old Scot pulled out of last summer’s US Open less than 48 hours before the tournament was due to start and also made an aborted trip Down Under at the start of this year, withdrawing from the Brisbane International at short notice and then deciding not to play the Australian Open. He travelled to Melbourne but had hip surgery there instead.

Since then Murray has been making steady progress in his comeback. He began it in the gym but has been back on court in recent days. The decision to practise at the Mouratoglou academy is a significant step forward in his recovery.

The other possibilities for Murray’s first comeback tournament before Rosmalen would be a new indoor hard-court Challenger event in Loughborough starting on May 19 and the Surbiton Trophy, which begins on June 2 and marks the start of the grass-court season. He is keeping an open mind about those events and could yet make a late decision to play in one or both of them, depending on how his recovery goes.

Although the Lawn Tennis Association is putting on an additional hard-court indoor Challenger tournament in Glasgow starting on April 28, that is likely to be too early into Murray’s rehabilitation programme.

Because of the shortness of the grass-court season - which for the top players still lasts only five weeks despite Wimbledon having moved back in the calendar - Murray is keen to get in some competitive play before the Fever-Tree Championships, which begins at Queen’s Club in London under its new title sponsor on 18 June.

Queen’s is normally the only grass-court event which Murray plays in the build-up to Wimbledon, but the quality of the 32-strong field there is such that the Scot would clearly prefer to go into it with some competitive play under his belt.

Murray could choose to play a few challenge events before his tour return (Getty)

Because Murray will almost certainly be unseeded going into Queen’s because of his drop down the world rankings, he could face one of the top seeds in his first match there. Rafael Nadal, Marin Cilic and Grigor Dimitrov, currently ranked No 2, No 3 and No 4 in the world respectively, are all lined up to play at Queen’s.

Murray has already fallen to No 29 in the rankings, which are based on a rolling total of points earned over the previous 12 months. By the time the draw is made for the Libema Open at Rosmalen he is likely to have fallen out of the world’s top 40 and by the time the Queen’s tournament starts he could be outside the top 150.

However, Murray should have no problem getting into tournaments for the rest of this year. There will be no shortage of tournaments willing to offer him wild cards and he can also use a “protected” world ranking, which would reflect his position in the world order before he got injured.