London, Sep 25

Scottish tennis star Andy Murray, the defending Wimbledon champion, has undergone successful back surgery, although he is expected to miss the rest of the 2013 season.

Without providing details on Monday's minor operation, Murray posted a photo Monday to his Twitter account showing him lying on a hospital bed.

The 26-year-old world No. 3 is seen giving the thumbs-up and says in an accompanying message "thanks for all the well wishes, means a lot to me".

He also joked in another tweet that the "first thing I said when I came round was 'did I win?'"

The tennis star announced last week that he would not play the rest of this season because of the operation, saying he did not want to further aggravate the ailment.

Murray's recurrent back problems flared up in May during the Rome Masters, forcing him to withdraw from that tournament and subsequently pull out of the French Open.

But he recovered in time to win Wimbledon a few weeks later, becoming the first British man to win tennis' most prestigious title since Fred Perry in 1936. 

By:IANS