Andy Murray and Wimbledon: Recent form allows us to carve up draw and dream a bit

You no longer have to wait. Wimbledon is upon us. Two weeks of Sue Barker, Andrew Castle, strawberries and cream and, hopefully, Andy Murray.

The 35-year-old Scot, two times a winner of the prestigious Championships, is in the draw and, for the first time in a long while, in good form and in good nick.

We were able to ride part of the Murray rollercoaster at last year’s tournament, when he battled past Nikoloz Basilashvili and Oscar Otte before losing to eventual semi-finalist Denis Shapovalov rather meekly in the third round. It was the first time we had seen him back on a singles court at SW19 since his hip resurfacing injury and it stirred the soul, rekindling memories of summers past when Murray used to have the British public on the edge of its seats.

The 2022 version of Murray is an improvement on 2021, of that there is little doubt. This has been a pretty good year for the former world No 1. He’s made two ATP finals, losing the Sydney International to Aslan Karatsev at the start of the year and then reaching the showpiece match at the Boss Open in Stuttgart, losing narrowly to last year’s Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini.

That match was on grass, clearly one of Murray’s best surfaces. He defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas and Nick Kyrgios in Stuttgart, not dropping a set until the Italian got his hands on him. The only concern that came out of his week in Germany was an abdominal strain he picked up. It forced him to miss Queen’s, but perhaps that is a blessing, having more time to prepare for Wimbledon. Murray says he feels fit and ready to go, and those who have watched him practice in the past couple of days report him playing at full pelt.

Let’s not beat about the bush, we won’t get many more chances to follow