Andy Murray returns to tennis tour after surgery

IT was only a friendly, so to speak. Andy Murray lost in straight sets to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga yesterday.

IT was only a friendly, so to speak. Andy Murray lost in straight sets to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in front of a sprinkling of supporters under lights in Abu Dhabi, which is light-years away from Wimbledon's centre court on a summer's afternoon. But he was out there playing and that was what he needed.

In the grand scheme of things, the last "championship" of 2013 marks a chance to indulge in a bit of edgy competition and for Murray it has the added piquancy of serving as a reminder of the challenges he has met with such unqualified success in the past 18 months. And as it was his first competitive match since he played in the Davis Cup in Croatia in the second week of September, there was something of a sense of getting back on the horse.

Murray's success at Wimbledon in July enhanced his profile to the extent that the money men of this emirate demanded he appear at their six-man party, a self-styled world championship sponsored by Mubadala, "the principal agent in the diversification of Abu Dhabi's economy".

Therefore, Murray joined Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, David Ferrer, Stanislas Wawrinka and Tsonga in a red-carpet round-robin affair where Nadal and Djokovic are held back and the remaining four play off for the opportunity to face them.

As such, Murray's 7-5 6-3 loss to the Frenchman means that he will play Wawrinka, the Swiss who ended his US Open prospects at the quarter-final stage at Flushing Meadows almost four months ago. Wawrinka lost 7-5 6-1 to Ferrer, having led 5-3 in the first set, which suggests that he was not quite as primed for this challenge as he might have been.

There is so little point in reading much into these results, perhaps the most enlightening element being that the court played very swiftly, as are those that await the best players in the world at the Australian Open, which begins in Melbourne a fortnight on Monday. "You had to react very quickly and Jo was just that bit sharper than me today," said Murray, who underwent back surgery in early October. "It's good to be back on the match court, this is where I want to be. All of this is about preparing well for Australia."

Murray will not be the only player whose mood ought to be lifted by some extra pace in the courts. In Brisbane, a tournament the Scot has won for the past two years but dropped from his schedule in preference for Doha next week, the speed of the surface was particularly noticeable as practice was stepped up. Roger Rasheed, coach to Grigor Dimitrov, the Bulgarian, tweeted: "The courts here are the fastest I've seen in Australia for a loooong time. They will be this speed @australianopen. Like it."

For the first time in his career, Roger Federer is trying his hand at the Brisbane International, where, in front of a select audience of 100 on Sunday evening, he will join Rod Laver in a special "Conversation of the Champions".

There will be a gleam in his eye, not least because he is to become a father again in the new year and the court speed could have been fashioned just for him.

The Times