Andy Murray's hoping to make his long-awaited return to singles tennis at next month's Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.

The three-time Grand Slam winner has been playing doubles since undergoing a major hip resurfacing operation earlier this year and is set to play doubles with his brother Jamie in Washington this week.

It follows the former world number one's appearances at Eastbourne and Wimbledon last month, where he also competed in the mixed-doubles alongside Serena Williams.

Murray had indicated after Wimbledon that he was unlikely to play singles before the US Open but he's now hoping to use Cincinnati as a springboard for the hard-court season.

"I'm closer than maybe what I thought I was, In terms of how I'm moving and feeling and pulling up the next day from these practices, I'm really happy with where I'm at.

"I think I'm quite close, if I was to play a tournament in a few weeks' time, I could do it. But it's just to get to maybe where I want to get to, I'll need to play matches and get a little bit more work done in the gym on my cardio.”

“What I'm doing here is, for the most part, I'm going to practise singles and play doubles to compete and then just each week I'm just going to see. If I keep progressing and I feel good in three weeks' time, then I'll play singles as soon as I'm ready. I'm not quite ready at this week, but I hope at some stage soon I will be,” Murray told the ATP Tour website.

“Best-case scenario probably would be Cincinnati, and then if I wasn't able to play in Cincinnati, there's a good chance I would probably wait until after New York because I wouldn't want my first tournament to be playing best of five sets".