Murray v Gasquet: Cincinatti: Long Waited Return for Former World Number One

Andy Murray is back in singles action for what is his long awaited and perhaps true return to singles tennis at the Cincinatti Masters event. With any luck this return will eclipse his previous attempt to overcome a hip injury. The difference this time is Murray has had full surgery on his hip after suffering from a major ball-and-socket joint problem which is common with sports people doing high impact sports where a person over uses their joint without sufficient rest in between. This is natural in a sport like tennis because players under go a season like rarely any other.

Source - Getty Images - Andy Murray

Not only do tennis players compete on average two tournaments every month of the year (around 20-30 tournaments in total), but each tournament can see them play up to four to five matches over a week. For a player like Murray who does so much running and hustling this lead to considerable wear and tear of his hip. Murray had something called a resurfacing operation where the ball of his hip was smoothed down and capped with a metal plate. The same was done to his socket but such surgery is only designed for people to do gentle exercise regularly or extreme exercise once in a while. It is not designed to last for a professional singles tennis player where the players are subjected to hours and hours of brutal on court action each week.

Murray is putting himself at severe risk of developing an even more serious condition longer term such as severe osteoarthritis.

This is the first time a player has ever undergone such as operation and then competed in singles professional tennis at the top of the game. For me the only way Murray will be able to make a success of his comeback is if he changes his style of game to minimise his time and coverage on court. This means hitting more aggressively rather than playing his old game of tennis.

Today he faces a favourable opponent who thankfully isn't the most dogged of players. Gasquet isn't the fastest or fittest of players. The frenchman has had a suspect season thus far. He's only made one Semi Final of a small tournament in the Netherlands, all other's he's fallen in the early rounds. At the age of 33 Gasquet looks like he's just there to collect his pay check - like many others his age who have never lived up to early promise.

Depending on how well Murray is moving he stands a chance of overcoming him today. At odds of 2.50, I am going to go with the Brit to snatch victory here and surprise everyone on his first match back.