Andy Murray discusses his chances against Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic at Australian Open

What's the story?

Andy Murray discussed the possibility of facing one of the Big 3 at the upcoming Australian Open in January. He conceded that should he play one of them he would not expect to win the match due to his lack of playtime in the best of five format since his troubles with surgery.

In case you didn't know

Andy Murray recently released a moving documentary that covered his near career-ending hip injury, his stunning rehabilitation through his terrible ordeal, as well as coming to terms with the fact that he may never play tennis again.

The heart of the matter

Andy Murray has not played tennis consistently for 2 years now and because of that his ranking, which was regularly placed in the top 4, has now plummeted below the top 100. Because of this, Andy Murray will not be seeded for the upcoming Australian Open.

As a consequence of this, he could be drawn against one of the Big 3 in the first round of the tournament. Murray is aware of this and commented on this possibility:

"I could play Federer in the first round, or Djokovic, I wouldn’t be expecting myself to win that match in the first best of five back. I have no idea what to expect result wise, but what would be positive for me would be playing through a best-of-five match without having a problem with my hip."

Here we can see that although Murray has, indeed, made a comeback to tennis, he is not getting ahead of himself. Although it would be fascinating to see how he fares against one of the Big 3, he won't be craving that opportunity so early in the tournament.

As the Scot quite rightly said, all he can ask for right now is to be in a physical state to see whether he can handle the longer best-of-five matches. We all know Andy Murray is capable of beating anyone on the tour when he is at his best. What needs to be tested first, however, is whether his body will allow him to reach this level again.