Now that we’ve seen Andy Murray back on a tennis court there seems to be a pretty big difference of opinion on what the signs for the future are.
After watching Murray play Roger Federer at the Hydro in Glasgow the BBC’s Andrew Castle was concerned about his movement.
Talking about the hip that has kept him out since Wimbledon, Castle said he was “disheartened” by what he was seeing.
Contrast that with Davis Cup captain Leon Smith, who probably knows Murray better than anyone apart from his mum.
He was “pleasantly surprised” by the progress he has made.
You pays your money, you takes your choice!
Me? I thought he looked in pretty good shape.
Like everybody I’ve seen him on the TV hundreds of times and the Andy Murray of midweek didn’t look too different to the Andy Murray of years gone by.
When I’ve seen him play in person in the Davis Cup in Glasgow I always used to think he was in agony after just about every point!
His physical capabilities are incredible and nobody retrieves ball better than him when he’s in the zone but he’s never been what you would call a fluid athlete, like say Roger Federer.
That’s never going to change.
Without knowing what his medical team are saying we just have to take him at his word, which seems to be that he’s pretty much on schedule.
My gut instinct is that we’ll see him back and we’ll see him back, if not at his peak best, then near enough to it to compete for the grand slams again for a couple of years.
I don’t think Murray is going to be a Tiger Woods who will make comeback after comeback.
My guess is that, as driven and motivated as he is, he’ll know the right time to call it a day.
He’s now become a dad for the second time and anything he achieves on the court will be icing on the cake.
He’s not chasing down records and I can never see him kidding himself on like Woods has been for the last couple of years.
* We had a bit of a break last week and now the preparations are stepping up for the last major championship before the Olympics – the Europeans.
We fly out to Switzerland on Thursday and have a tough start, with Sweden and Russia up first.
It will be a really important week for the men. Team Smith have had a slow start to their season but this is a big chance for them to gain some momentum as they haven’t been at a major event since the Euros two years ago.
* Over in Canada our coach Glenn Howard is becoming a big story.
His team are doing really well in the pre-trials for Olympic selection and are in with a chance of making the final trials.
Glenn’s in his mid-50s (and has his son in his team) and is going up against teams 20 years younger.
I’m already getting asked by Canadian TV for my view on it but if he gets to Pyeongchang as a player, they’ll be making a movie!
