Andy Murray pleased with progress, but knows he needs to serve better

Andy Murray says his serving is slowly improving again, but he needs to get better following a third-round defeat at the Monte Carlo Masters.

The world No. 1 was up 4-0 in the third set against Albert Ramos-Vinolas before losing in heartbreaking fashion. He was broken seven times during the encounter.

Murray was sidelined for more than a month with an elbow injury, and said he had taken a lot of speed off his delivery until just a few days before the tournament.

"When you start serving fast again, it just takes a bit of time to get into a rhythm," Murray told Sky Sports. "I'm going to need to obviously improve my serving during the next few weeks."

He did see some improvement during the tournament, though.

“I felt like even though I didn't hold that much today,” the Scot said, “I served better than I did in my last match. Second serve had a little bit more speed on it—less double faults, a few more aces."

Having considered withdrawing from the event, the 29-year-old declared he was satisfied with his first tournament back.

“I didn't know if I was going to be able to play here or not,” Murray said. “For me personally—it's not going to seem it to everyone watching—it's progress from where I was 10 days, a couple of weeks ago."

Murray was previously a semifinalist in Monte Carlo.