London | Murray comments on his Wimbledon preparations

Practice makes perfects says the expression. And Andy Murray is getting more of it going into Wimbledon than he did last year.

This year my preparations have been significantly better, I got a lot of good practice in, and I got good matches in, but obviously with the injury that has slowed some of that progress and made it a little bit tricky this last week or so Andy Murray

The two-time champion and former world No.1 also moved back into the top 50 on the back of the sort of performances that scored him victories over Stefanos Tsitsipas and, in the last-four, Nick Kyrgios on route to the Stuttgart Open final where he took Queen’s champion Matteo Berrettini to three sets before losing out.

But an abdominal strain sustained in the decider against Italian Berrettini, tipped among the favourites for the men’s title in London SW19, has forced the Brit into a race against the clock to be fit and ready for the tournament which starts on 27 June.

It has limited practice in the last week or so for Murray, who has fought back from hip problems.

He said: “The (abdominal) injury is healing but still not perfect. The positives are I’ve been able to practice but there are certain shots I’ve not been able to practice, so that has disrupted my preparations. The injury is healing but is still not perfect.

“I’ve been practising for the past three or four days and have been practising well. But unfortunately, in matches, you can’t just not hit certain shots.

“Going into Wimbledon last year I’d gone in with hardly any proper practice at all.

“It wasn’t until literally the Thursday or Friday before Wimbledon started that I started to feel physically a little bit better, and then during the event physically I felt fine, but my preparations were really poor.

“This year my preparations have been significantly better, I got a lot of good practice in, and I got good matches in, but obviously with the injury that has slowed some of that progress and made it a little bit tricky this last week or so.

“I was in a good position against Berrettini as well before the issues so that for me is the biggest thing.

“I practised really well the last few months and worked on a lot of things with my team.”

Murray reached the third round of the Championships last year despite his lack of practice before falling to Canadian Denis Shapovalov. It was his best Slam campaign since reaching the last eight at Wimbledon in 2017 while battling with his hip trouble.

But he is not looking beyond the opening round.

The 35-year-old, who is now ranked 51 after missing Queen’s through injury, said: “I wouldn’t say that (a run to latter stages is possible). I haven’t shown that in the last few years.

“My goal is just to try to get to the start-line in a good place physically and give myself the best chance to do well.

“I’m obviously going in unseeded as well, which makes things tricky, but getting through a few matches for me is positive right now.”

Express Sport has conducted a readers’ poll in which 46.3 per cent of the 3,795 polled believe this year’s Wimbledon would be Murray’s last while just under 25 per cent felt he would return with 28.9 per cent undecided.

* Quotes from the Press Association and the BBC.