Andy Murray to drop down to challenger circuit to begin his Wimbledon preparations
- Planet Sport writer
- 19 May 2022
Former world number one Andy Murray has confirmed his schedule ahead of Wimbledon this summer.
Andy Murray has confirmed he will drop down to Challenger level this summer as he starts his Wimbledon preparations at Surbiton.
Murray's game appeared to be making some serious progress when he beat Dominic Thiem and Denis Shapovalov at the Madrid Masters earlier this month.
That set up a clash with world number one Novak Djokovic, but a reported bout of food poisoning before the game forced him to withdraw.
He followed that up by going back to his original play of skipping clay season to focus on his grass preparations, with him subsequently pulling out of Rome and Roland Garros.
Murray will now next appear at the Surbiton Challenger event on May 29.
From there he plans to travel to Germany to play the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart before heading to play Queen's, a tournament he has won a record five times before.
"I'm really looking forward to playing at Surbiton and Queen's this year - two great events," Murray said.
"It's always special playing on the grass in front of a home crowd."
British number one Cameron Norrie is also confirmed for Queen's, as is Dan Evans and top youngster Jack Draper.
British Davis Cup captain Leon Smith said: "To see so many of our British players thriving at the top of the game highlights the progress our sport has made in recent years, and it will be fantastic to see so many of them taking to the grass courts for the LTA's summer events.
"In a year that has seen Cam Norrie break into the top ten of the ATP rankings, Dan Evans and Andy Murray serve up some great performances, Joe Salisbury rise to No.1 spot in the doubles rankings, Neal Skupski win his first ATP 1000 event and Jack Draper continues to make such great progress, there is so much to look forward to this summer in our grass courts events leading into Wimbledon."
