Friday 9 August 2019 21:00, UK
Andy Murray will make his return to singles tennis at the Cincinnati Masters next week.
The news, which was announced by the former World No 1 on his Facebook page, comes seven months after a tearful Murray said in Australia that his career could be over.
However, he subsequently underwent a second hip operation and made his comeback when he teamed up with Feliciano Lopez to win the doubles in the Fever-Tree Championships at Queen's Club.
Since then he has continued to compete in the less-demanding doubles format - most recently at the Rogers Cup in Canada this week.
And on Friday Murray posted a picture of himself clenching his fist in trademark fashion, accompanied by the message: "That feeling when you accept a wildcard for the singles in Cinci..."
Murray revealed ahead of last week's tournament in Washington that he was targeting Cincinnati - having originally said at Wimbledon that it could be a few months before he made his singles return.
And playing in Cincinnati could be a precursor to Murray making his grand slam singles return at the US Open, which starts on August 26, although the 32-year-old may be wary of competing over best-of-five sets so soon.
Simply by playing in Cincinnati, Murray will be treading new ground, by becoming the first player to return to the singles game following a hip resurfacing operation.
Doubles star Bob Bryan has made a successful return from the same surgery and his progress gave Murray hope that he could complete his own comeback.
