Thu 25 Jul 2024

 

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Andy Murray retires from singles tennis after pulling out of Paris 2024 event

Murray will only complete in the Olympic doubles due to his ongoing recovery from spinal surgery

Andy Murray has played his last singles match after confirming he will only play doubles at the Paris Olympics.

Murray, 37, said earlier this week that the Olympics, held this year at French Open venue Roland Garros, would be his last ever tennis tournament as a player.

The two-time gold medallist had been entered in both singles and doubles in Paris, but after back surgery over the summer and a fraught grass-court season, he has conceded he will only be able to play the team event with Dan Evans.

“I’ve take the decision to withdraw from the singles to concentrate on the doubles with Dan,” Murray said on Thursday.

“Our practice has been great and we’re playing well together. Really looking forward to getting started and representing GB one more time.”

Murray has a storied relationship with the Olympic Games over his long career. His victory over Roger Federer in 2012 to claim gold at Wimbledon was the biggest achievement of his life to that point, and gave him the belief to return to SW19 a year later and win his maiden title there.

And when he beat Juan Martin del Potro to retain the Olympic title four years later in Rio de Janeiro, he became the first singles player ever to win two singles gold medals.

It is perhaps fitting then that Murray will close the curtain on his career at the Olympic Games, albeit an incongruous setting given clay is his least favourite surface and Roland Garros his least successful major.

But the former world No 1 and three-time grand slam winner has had to learn that he could not entirely control the timing or venue of his departure from the professional game: tearing ankle ligaments in March and then having back surgery just days before his last Wimbledon put paid to that.

“I wasn’t sure how I would feel a few months ago, to be honest,” he said.

“I was unsure about it. I had a lot of conversations with my family, with my wife. I was unsure about the injury during Queen’s, but I had been struggling with my back through most of the clay-court season after the ankle injury.

“I knew that it was the right time and I’m happy about it now. I didn’t feel that way a few months ago when I [first] thought this is when I was going to stop.

“I didn’t really want to, whereas now I want to and I know that it’s the right time for me, so I feel good about it.”

It means that Murray’s last singles match will be his retirement against Jordan Thompson, a match where the Scot felt a cyst in his back flare up as he walked to the court, leaving him without feeling or coordination in his right leg.

He limped through five very sorry games before shaking hands with the Australian, the first time he had pulled out mid-match for 11 years.

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