30
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 23 SEPTEMBER 2018
SPORTS
TENNIS
Britain's former world
number one, Andy Mur-
ray plans to play in the
Shenzhen and Beijing
tournaments over the
next two weeks.
But he will not play in
either of the remaining
two Masters series events
in Shanghai or Paris in
October.
Murray hopes recondi-
tioning and "some hard
training" and will help
him "make some big im-
provements".
The 31-year-old Scot
had hip surgery in Janu-
ary and has only played
nine matches this year af-
ter returning to the ATP
Tour in June.
He withdrew from
Wimbledon on the eve
of the tournament and
lost in the second round
at the US Open on his re-
turn to Grand Slams.
"I need a long period of
training and recondition-
ing to get myself in the
best shape possible for
the beginning of the 2019
season and getting my-
self back competing for
the biggest tournaments
again," Murray, now
world ranked 308, said in
a video on Facebook.
"Looking forward to
getting some hard train-
ing done and making
some more improve-
ments.
"It's been really posi-
tive the last few months.
I feel like I made big
strides forward in the re-
hab from the hip surgery.
With another strong
training period, I'll make
some big improvements.
"Hopefully, the next
couple of weeks go well
in China, looking for-
ward to it."
Andy Murray to
end comeback
season early
after competing
in China events
Murray says he
wants to be in
"the best shape
possible" for the
start of the 2019
season
