Andy Murray targets New Year comeback in Australia but will not rush return after charity match defeat by Roger Federer

The Scot has not played since struggling through Wimbledon with a hip injury

Andy Murray is confident he will recover fully from the hip injury which has kept him out of competition since Wimbledon but says he will return only when he is ready and 100 per cent fit.

Murray, who is due to start his comeback in Australia at the start of next year, was talking before playing a charity exhibition match against Roger Federer here on Tuesday evening. Federer won a light-hearted encounter, which was decided by a champions’ tie-break, 6-3, 3-6, 10-6 as the Scot played his first match for four months at the “Andy Murray Live” event at the SSE Hydro.

“I hope I’m there,” Murray said when asked about his plan to return at the Brisbane International in the first week of January. “Things have been going pretty well so far in the rehab. But you just never know. You take each week as it comes. You have setbacks and then things come on quite quickly as well.

“I’ve been training for a few weeks now. Some days I’ve felt great, some days not so good, but I’m getting there. I’ll come back when I’m ready and 100 per cent fit.”

Although a relaxed occasion like this was not the best moment to assess Murray’s fitness he did not appear to be in any discomfort as he chased balls to all corners of the court. There were, nevertheless, moments, particularly when he was walking between points, when he did not appear to move as freely as he had before suffering the hip injury this summer.

“For a first match in four or five months it was great,” Murray said of his performance when interviewed on court at the end of the match. “I really enjoyed it. I felt pretty good – not perfect, but I felt like I’m going in the right direction.”

Federer, making his first visit to Scotland, was given a huge welcome by a capacity crowd of 11,000. The Wimbledon champion joined in the spirit of the occasion by playing one game in the second set while wearing a kilt.

Murray was clearly in good spirits during the charity match (Getty)

The event raised money for Unicef, the worldwide children’s charity, and, Sunny-sid3up, a Glasgow-based charity that aims to “improve lives and communities in Scotland and overseas”..

Murray, who started the year as world No 1 but fell this week to No 16 in the rankings, had not played a match in public since he limped to defeat by Sam Querrey in the Wimbledon quarter-finals. He had hoped to return at the US Open at the end of August but pulled out less than 48 hours before it was due to start.

Murray and Federer took part in a charity exhibition match on Tuesday night (Getty)

“I probably made a bit of mistake trying to get ready for the US Open, but it was the last major of the year and I wanted to give it a go,” Murray said here. “Now it’s been time to give my body the rest and recovery it needs and I will come back when I’m ready.”

Federer, who took off the second half of last year because of a knee problem but has made a stunning return in 2017, said his best advice to Murray would be “just to get fit again”.

The Wimbledon champion explained: “Take your time, however long it takes. When you come back you want to be at 100 per cent. Otherwise the problem is you feel you just can’t beat the best at the big tournaments.

The former World No 1 has not played since Wimbledon (Getty Images)

“It’s wise and worthwhile to take the extra week, extra month maybe, because I’m sure Andy is going to have a lot of years left. He shouldn’t hurry, but as a professional athlete you always want to come back as quickly as possible. You need to have goals, but sometimes they need to be postponed.”

Turning to Murray at the pre-event press conference, Federer said: “It’s nice to see you back on the court. I’ve missed you, man.”

Murray said he had consulted a number of specialists after Wimbledon, having suffered with the hip problem since the end of the French Open.

“Surgery was not recommended for me and obviously that’s great,” he said. “You never know how you’re going to come back from surgery. If you can go a conservative route it’s better. So I sat down with my team and it was like: Let’s just take time to get ready again, do all of the rehab, get yourself as strong as possible.

“That’s one of the few positives of a break like this. You get the opportunity to do a lot of work in the gym and build up your strength and your endurance. You obviously just can’t spend time on the match court.”

Murray has carried the weight of British expectation since 2012 (Getty)

Murray said he was confident that he would eventually make a full recovery. “That’s what I’m working towards, for sure,” he said. “We have to see, but I believe that will be the case. When I get back on the court next year and start playing again it might not come immediately at the beginning of the year. I might not play my best tennis straight off.”

He added: “I have been hitting the ball very well in practice, but there is a difference between that 75-80 per cent practice and going flat out at 100 per cent for two and a half or three hours on the match court. Until I do that I can’t say for certain, but I think I’ll be able to come back just fine.”

Asked to go into detail about his rehabilitation, Murray said: “Some days I've been on the court for a couple of hours. Those two hours are not 100 per cent intensity. I'm working on some more technical things. I'm not doing a massive pounding through my body and through my joints, but I've spent a decent amount of time on court.

“Certainly I've spent more time in the gym with my physios than I have on the tennis court, but in the last week or 10 days I've been on the court an hour-and-a-half, two hours, most days, just trying to build up slowly.”

Murray said he planned to do his pre-season training in Miami before going to Australia earlier than he has in the past. “Obviously coming into the beginning of the new year I will be at a bit of a disadvantage because I have not played matches for a long time,” he said.

“If I can go there a little bit earlier to get used to the conditions, a bit sooner than some of the other players that might help level it up a little bit for me.”