ABU DHABI, December 30, 2017

Andy Murray treated fans to surprise at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship on Friday evening, taking part in a one set exhibition match against Roberto Bautista-Agut.

The 30-year-old Briton had been sidelined from the courts since the his quarterfinal loss to Sam Querrey at Wimbledon in July due to hip injury. Murray arrived in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, having a couple of practice session at the Zayed Sports City with his coach Jamie Delgado.

After Novak Djokovic was forced to withdraw from the event with an elbow injury, the former World No. 1 was back in action on Centre Court. Murray, who obviously needs some more time to get back to his best but showed some fighting spirit, lost the set 2-6.

“After a slow start, I started to feel a bit better towards the end but I’ll need to keep improving, for sure,” Murray told during his on-court-interview.

“It was nice. I was planning on stopping here for a couple of days on the way over to Australia to get some practice in with the guys here.

“It was unfortunate that Novak was unable to play so I agreed to play a set. I was very lucky to be able to come out here and play in front of everyone. It was good fun. I’ve missed it.”

Murray has now flown out to Australia and is expected to play the ATP 250 event in Brisbane, which gets underway on Sunday.