When Andy Murray hits his first tennis balls in more than six weeks there may be a momentary fear that he may have forgotten how to play the game.

After his back surgery, the Wimbledon champion is stressing caution at every turn but there is one thing he is convinced about. When he returns, he will be better than ever.

Murray took a break from his intensive rehabilitation programme to launch a new racket from his sponsor, Head, on Thursday, but spent most of a cloudy morning at London's Queen's Club discussing his surgery, his injury, his recovery and his hopes for the future.

At 26, with two Grand Slam titles and an Olympic gold medal, Murray has his sights set on more glory and believes there is no reason 2014 will not see a new, improved version of the man who broke a 77-year drought of British male champions at Wimbledon just four months ago.

"I hope I'll be able to play better than before because for a couple of years, there have been shots that I couldn't hit any more," Murray said as he perched on a stool at Queen's, perhaps not the best idea for someone recovering from back surgery.

"I wanted to have it done because I wanted to enjoy being able to play and be pain free and not have to tailor all my training and all of my days to having to deal with this issue.

"I couldn't play the shots because it was too painful and because I couldn't generate the power. Providing the surgery has gone well, it should allow me to be able to play the strokes I want to and not have to play managing the issue, so that's exciting.

"If I watch videos of when I was playing five years ago, six years ago, there are some shots that I was like 'ahhhh'. I was saying earlier in the year, 'ah, I'd love to be able to do that' and I couldn't any more.

"It wasn't so much the serve. It was other shots that were the issue. And also just general movement, not being as stiff or inhibited. I wanted just to be free again in my movement.

"I guess we'll have to wait and see how it goes but I'm positive that if I do all the right rehab and recovery stuff and don't rush back, that when I do get back on the court I'll be able to hit shots that I wasn't able to hit for the last 18 months or so."

The Scot postponed his surgery to help Britain qualify for the World Group of the Davis Cup - "if I didn't play [people would have said it was] because I'm not patriotic enough" - but hopes to be fully fit in time for the Australian Open in January.

He will head to his training base in Florida in about 10 days and is scheduled to play in an exhibition event in Barbados at the end of the month.

Murray's recovery means he will be missing from this week's season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, the eight-man event held at London's O2. The Scot will, however, be keeping a close eye on his rivals via television and is not predicting too many surprises when it comes to picking the eventual champion.

"I think the winner will come from Rafa [Nadal] and Novak [Djokovic] but I think Roger [Federer] will have a good tournament," he said. "I think he'll play well."