Andy Murray will compete at the 2020 Australian Open.

The news was confirmed on the tournament's official Twitter page on Tuesday - hours before the Scot exited the Shanghai Masters following a gripping second-round clash with Fabio Fognini.

Earlier on, tournament director Craig Tiley told Australian radio station Triple M: "For sure Andy will be here.

"I was on the phone to his agent this morning. He is going to be in Australia early. He is ready to return."

The former world number one had career-saving hip surgery earlier this year and continued his good progress by reaching the China Open quarter-finals last week.

At the 2019 Australian Open, Murray, 32, tearfully announced he may have to retire due to the pain he felt every time he played.

But after he underwent a procedure to resurface his hip joint in January, the two-time Wimbledon champion has gone from strength to strength.

Mr Tiley added: "Remember he said goodbye a year ago. It's great in that period he had surgery and has rebounded really well."

Murray lost a fiery encounter with Fognini after twice failing to serve it out.

The performance itself gave more than enough talking points, with Murray raising his level again to push a player ranked 12 in the world all the way before slipping to a 7-6 (4) 2-6 7-6 (2) defeat.

Murray was furious with Fognini, who is no stranger to overstepping the mark, when he shouted as the Scot was about to put away a volley in the 11th game of the deciding set.

Murray confronted his opponent at the change of ends, telling the Italian to "shut up" as umpire Fergus Murphy tried to dissuade him from taking it any further.

Having failed to serve out the match at 5-4, Murray had another chance at 6-5 but Fognini broke back once more and then dominated the tie-break, clinching victory after three hours and nine minutes.

The handshake between the pair was brief but civil, with Murray continuing to press his point to Murphy before leaving the court.

Following three weeks of action in China, he will now continue his comeback at the European Open in Antwerp next week.