Andy Murray: Expectations for clay-court season are 'quite high'

Andy Murray says he is "serving normally" again following an elbow injury that has kept him off the tour since Indian Wells.

The world No. 1, who is returning this week in Monte Carlo, said a few days ago that he did not know if he would play the tournament, but has since declared himself fit for competition.

"I would not be playing if I felt I was taking a risk," he said at a press conference before the tournament.

Murray said he is back serving at full speed, and will have had five days of practicing his normal delivery before he plays his first match.

"When I had the injury, I had to take two-and-a-half weeks off serving," he said. “When I started serving again, I had to progress very slowly ... But every day I was building up. Often the elbow can get sore if I've not served for a week or 10 days. But each day [it] started to get better."

The 29-year-old, the defending champion in Rome and defending finalist in Madrid and at the French Open, does not anticipate any lingering effects from the injury.

"Maybe this week they would be slightly lower,” he said, “but I think my expectations through the rest of the clay-court season are quite high."

He partly attributed his illness and injury-filled start to the season to the extensive schedule he played at the end of 2016, when he was fighting for the year-end No. 1 ranking.

"I had never played that much tennis, and didn’t know exactly what the right thing to do was," he said. "But I feel fine now, even if the start of the year was a bit tough."