IT was a memorable moment to savour that Sir Andy Murray simply described as “brilliant”.
In a fairytale comeback, the sensational Scot triumphed in the Men’s Doubles final at Queen’s Club - and left the door open for a potential return to singles at the US Open in August.
The 32-year-old had feared he may never play professionally again prior to having his hip resurfaced in January, but to roars from the crowd, he told them yesterday: “My hip felt great, there was no pain.”
Sir Andy and Spain’s Lopez beat Briton Joe Salisbury and American Rajeev Ram 7-6 (8-6) 5-7 10-5.
Lopez, 37, added the doubles to the singles title he won earlier in the day.
Sir Andy, who had not won a doubles title since 2011, said ending his comeback tournament with a win was “brilliant”.
Prior to the Fever-Tree Championships, the two-time Wimbledon champion suggested he would keep faith with doubles until after the grand slam in New York, which starts at the end of August.
But following a successful and, crucially, pain-free week in west London, Murray will have a rethink.
"If I keep progressing, I would like to try to play singles," he said.
"I think I have a couple of options after Wimbledon - either I continue with doubles but start training and practising singles through the US Open swing, and then try and maybe play singles after that.
"Or I take a longer break post-Wimbledon of maybe, let's say, a month or six weeks, to get myself ready for singles, and then try and play close to the US Open time.
"But I don't care really either way. It would be nice to play at the US Open but if I don't - look, I got so much enjoyment and happiness after winning a first-round doubles match here that, you know, that's enough."
It seemed at Queen's that was not enough, though. The tennis ace, who was close to retiring in January as he was struggling to walk without pain, let alone play tennis, strolled off with the silverware at his first attempt back.
Murray and Lopez - the latter 'fresh' from winning the singles title less than an hour earlier - beat Britain's Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram of the USA 7-6 (6) 5-7 10-5 after a third-set match tie-break.
Murray had insisted after their first-round victory that winning was not his number one priority this week but the three-time grand slam champion has clearly not lost the appetite for a battle.
The fledgling partnership was 5-1 down in a first-set tie-break but fought back to level, and took it when Ram pushed a forehand wide.
The second set went the way of Salisbury and Ram after Murray dropped serve, and like so many matches during Murray's career, it went to the wire.
Lopez, who must have been running on empty, somehow conjured up a series of stunning winners in the match tie-break to secure his own personal double and an unexpected, but welcome victory for Murray.
He said: "It's incredible. It's tough to believe. I won this tournament in 2017. That was the best win of my career. And then I did it again two years after, and then I won the doubles half an hour after that!."
Murray's win lit up social media, with his mother, Judy, posting an image of the victors, saying: "Mother's pride."
Martina Navratilova Tweeted: "How great to have @andy_murray back playing and congrats to him and also to @feliciano_lopez for winning both singles and double at #QueensTennis"
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