Andy Murray talks up chances of playing singles at US Open

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 Scot, 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 was indebted to Lopez, who has been playing his own version of winner stays on for the past couple of days.

The 37-year-old had spent just shy of five hours on court playing three different matches on Saturday, getting through to the singles final before returning to what this week has seemed far more important, the doubles.

In the final, against Gilles Simon of France, Lopez let a second-set tie-break slip at 4-2 up to take it to a decider, and almost inevitably another tie-break. Lopez came out triumphant after another two hours and 49 minutes of combat.

"It's incredible," he said. "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!."

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