IT would be pushing it to call Andy Murray and Nick Kyrgios kindred spirits. But there is a certain symmetry in the fact the controversial 23-year-old Australian will be on the other side of the net tomorrow when the Scot makes what is sure to be an emotional competitive return after 11 months out with a serious hip problem at the Fever-Tree Championships at Queen’s Club.

Kyrgios, who was two years younger than Celtic’s Tom Rogic at Radford College in the Australian Capital Territories, actually had his photograph in the school hall of fame taken down in disgust at some of the bad boy antics which marked the early stages of his career. While he has generally had a high-profile backer in the form of Murray, Kyrgios too has had his hip problems to speak of. Retiring in the first round at last year’s Wimbledon to Pierre Hugues-Herbert of France, the Aussie shut down the remainder of his 2017 season as early as October, and even skipped the clay courts of Paris this season. Potentially an excellent grass court player, as evidenced by his triumph against Rafa Nadal as a teenager back in 2014 - any fears about his status this summer seemed to be alleviated when he went down just 5-7 in a final set tie-breaker against Roger Federer in the semi-finals of Stuttgart just as Murray was making his 11th hour decision to enter the Queen’s Club draw.

Forget about Murray’s chances of winning Wimbledon this year, Federer reckons Kyrgios is a potential winner at the All England club in a fortnight’s time. Having said that he hasn’t got past the fourth round at any Grand Slam since the 2015 Australian Open, and Murray has won all five previous meetings. “I think his [Kyrgios’] game is really good, very big,” said Federer. “You would think that Wimbledon is also a chance for him to do very well there, maybe win it.”

Hardly the easiest of starts, then, for the Scot’s recovery – even if the Australian’s big serving and flashy game style won’t make for many long rallies. Murray told reporters on Saturday that he has “zero expectations” as he goes into his first tournament for 11 months, but it won’t take long on Tuesday for those competitive juices to start flowing again. “Nick obviously plays extremely well on the grass,” said Murray. “He’s always a tough guy to play against. He’s got a brilliant serve and obviously he’s very, very talented. He’s unpredictable as well. The positive is that there probably won’t be loads of long points. Points can be quite sharp with him, which is good, but obviously a very tricky match with the way that he plays and how comfortable he is on the grass.”

Fourteen of the world’s top 30 players will play at Queen’s Club and the rest aren’t bad either. While Kyrgios is 24th in the world by the numbers, Murray has dropped to 157, wild card Novak Djokovic plays under a ranking of World No 21, with Stan Wawrinka as far out as 263. The Swiss, who needs just the Wimbledon title to complete a career Grand Slam, faces Cam Norrie, a Brit who is hugely proud of his Scottish links via his father David, in today’s first round.

As low as his expectations are being pitched, Murray is simply excited to get back out there competing again, not least at a venue where he is the most successful player in the history of the tournament with five titles. The exception which proved the rule was last year, when the first sign of the Scot’s troubled summer was going down to lucky loser Jordan Thompson of Australia in the first round, just as Kyrgios was injuring his hip and retiring hurt against Donald Young of the USA. Last year’s event was far happier for his brother Jamie, ho goes into this year’s event with his partner Bruno Soares as defending champions.

“It’s obviously exciting, I have always enjoyed playing here,” said Andy. “Last year was kind of the start of, a tough year for me. But I’ve obviously got lots of great memories from here, from winning the tournament and playing here the first time when I was 18. I’m sure I’ll have the same nerves and stuff as I did all those years ago. Having missed eleven months, coming back I’m expecting to be very nervous when I go back out there. But it’s a cool place to come back to.”

Having come through eight practice sets, including two against Norrie, with no ill effects, Murray is hoping match play brings more out of him. “The hope is when you start competing in live matches, generally I feel like I let go a lot more and move more freely, in practices the tendency can be to hold back.”