Former tennis world number one Andy Murray believes it would "naive and silly" to believe that he will ever be the best player on the planet again.
The 32-year-old has been recovering from hip surgery in January and has slowly returned to the sport, mainly competing in doubles, and at Wimbledon playing in the mixed doubles alongside Serena Williams.
He has been targetting a return to singles tennis for a number of months but did not take up the opportunity of playing at the US Open as a wildcard.
He's currently competing at the Zhuhai Championships in China. BBC Sport is reporting the three-time Grand Slam champion as saying, "I'm not expecting to get back to my very best. I think it would be probably a bit naive and silly to think that would be the case.
"I do feel like tennis-wise I can still compete at the highest level in terms of my skill, it's just whether physically I can get to a high enough level to be competitive right at the top."
"Tennis has always been a huge part of my life, but I realised that actually my health was the most important thing for a happy life and I had always been worried about what life might look like after tennis, but now I'm not worried.
"I had a glimpse these last few months and it was brilliant - hanging out with friends and family, and it was great. "
Speaking in July, Murray was relishing the return to fitness ahead of Wimbledon, he said "I'm just happy to be fit and healthy again. With what's happened the last year or so, you never know what's round the corner, so it's a great opportunity. I'll look forward to it."
The two-time Wimbledon singles champion is to continue playing in China before he is expected to return to courts in Europe in October.
