Andy Murray has announced he is fit to defend his title at Wimbledon following a recent hip injury scare.
The world number one pulled out of two warm-up matches earlier in the week as he battled to secure peak fitness.
But on Sunday he dismissed fears he may have to pull out, saying: “I’ll be fine to play the event and play seven matches.”
Murray faces Kazakhstan's Alexander Bublik at 1.0pm on Monday, in the opening match on Centre Court.
Murray also confirmed reports he and wife Kim are expecting their second child.
He said: “We’re both obviously very happy and looking forward to it.”
Speaking of the hip problem, Murray added: “I’ve had hip problems since I was very young. It’s not something new to me. It’s just been very sore the last few weeks and was giving me quite a lot of trouble, moving to certain shots and getting to certain positions.
“That was why I had to take the break to try to give it a chance to settle down, calm down a bit.
“I spent a lot of time with my physio, doing some extra exercises in my warm-up, strengthening exercises, a lot of stuff to try to loosen off that area and it’s felt a lot better in the last few days.”
Asked if he could play himself into shape in the first week of the tournament, Murray said: “Obviously no matches are easy. The last few days have been very good, practice each day has been slightly stop-start preparations but each day I’ve felt better.
“But a little bit like the French Open where maybe I didn’t come in as well-prepared (as I would have liked), I still found a way with each match to feel a bit better and built confidence each day. So I’m hoping that’s the case here.”
Murray said knowing he is due to become a father again would have no bearing on his performance.
“No, I wouldn’t have thought so,” he said.
Regarding his wife, Murray added: “She’ll be coming to Wimbledon. And we found out a while ago. But I’m not interested in discussing the dates of that in here.”
