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Andy Murray confirms he is fit to defend Wimbledon title

World number one pulled out of two warm-up matches with a hip problem

Andy Murray has confirmed he is fit to defend his Wimbledon title. Photograph: Shaun Botterill/Getty

Sun Jul 2 2017 - 12:39

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.

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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.”

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