Andy Murray must be realistic about Wimbledon run, says John McEnroe

John McEnroe expects Andy Murray to play at Wimbledon but would be surprised if the two-times champion has much more than a decent run there 12 months after limping away from his favourite tournament, beaten and worried about his future.

“He’s gonna play because he loves to play,” says McEnroe, who won at SW19 three times and regards his annual stint in the BBC commentary box as a highlight of his year. “But I’m sure he would be realistic about what he could do if he did play. It would be tough to go a long way if he hasn’t played.”

On Tuesday, Murray cancelled his planned comeback in the Netherlands next week but insisted he wants to break his absence on grass this summer, with Queen’s Club looking the most likely venue, in a fortnight. His core concern is his right hip, which gave up on him in his five-set defeat against Sam Querrey in the quarter‑final last year and which has been slow to heal since surgery in January.

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“When you have a hip problem you have a tendency to be more cautious [on grass],” McEnroe said. “I had some hip issues. I felt like I lost some speed. It’s not a good feeling, particularly when guys are hitting it harder than ever – even when I was playing. It just seems like every time they can harry you, they are going for it. If you are not feeling quite right, it can be tough.”

Murray is adamant he will not play again until he is “100% fit” but McEnroe says that will be a hard call. “There is no way to know. You play practice – and we all know how different practice is to a match, where you step on Centre Court at Wimbledon. It’s a year. That’s a long time.

“Everyone’s different. You go from the extreme of Roger [Federer] being able to pull it off to Stan [Wawrinka], who has barely played. Novak [Djokovic] doesn’t seem like himself yet and that’s been the better part of almost a couple of years now.”

Having witnessed Djokovic in meltdown the previous evening during and after his shock loss to the world No 72, Marco Cecchinato, in the quarter-finals here, McEnroe reckons the Serb is struggling. “I think it’s more mental than physical – but I don’t know that for sure. As it is with most things or almost everything, it’s a combination. To what degree does one feed into the other? It’s difficult to say.”

Summing up Djokovic’s French Open, he said: “He had, for him, a very favourable draw. In some of these longer rallies, he didn’t seem to have quite the same endurance. It seemed to affect him late in the fourth.” He led 4-1 and 5-2 before losing in a 22-minute tie-break.

“I thought he was going to beat the guy 6-1 in the fourth. Somehow, the guy got back in it and then he played the match of his life. I think [Djokovic] should have reached the semis. There is no question in my mind that he should have beaten this guy – but he did pull a rabbit out of the hat.”

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What Djokovic shares with Murray is the struggle to get back to the very top of the game. McEnroe knows how that feels. “Well, I carried on for about seven years [after a six-month break in 1986, and another absence the following year]. That’s a long time. You keep giving yourself reasons as to why it’s worth it, the upside. It’s worth taking semi-humiliation. You’re still out there doing something you love in a way, but you’re not as good as you were.

“I’m not even saying [Murray] won’t be [as good as he was]. I don’t know what will happen, but it will be pretty tough to come back and be better than he was – unless I’m missing something when you have hip surgery. Maybe they can cure it completely, but that’s a pretty tough injury to overcome. Let’s just say it’s difficult. I didn’t take the time off so that I would be worse when I came back. My plan was to be better. You sink to a certain level where you can’t take it any more.

“I felt like I was still one of the top 10 guys but in order to even keep that ranking, I had to do a lot more than I was capable of doing, in terms of travel with kids and family. That complicates things.”

He is adamant, though, that Murray has to be more aggressive. “That’s something that helped him win in the first place, it would seem to be a no‑brainer. But, whether or not he had a hip problem, he should have done that anyway. When he got more aggressive off the return, forehand and going after more backhands, he became more difficult to deal with.”