Andy Murray has confirmed that he will be retiring from professional tennis after this summer’s Olympics. The Brit will be competing in the men’s singles and doubles alongside Dan Evans in Paris, before calling it a day on his glittering career.
Murray pulled out of the men’s singles competition at Wimbledon earlier this month, before enjoying an emotional farewell on Centre Court with his brother Jamie in their final men’s doubles match.
The three-time Grand Slam champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist has been struggling with continued injuries for several years, after playing on with a metal hip against all odds, but confirmed that he has decided to quit after the Olympic Games.
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In a social media post he wrote: “Arrived in Paris for my last ever tennis tournament @Olympics Competing for (Team GB). Have been by far the most memorable weeks of my career and I’m extremely proud to get do it one final time!”
The tournament gets underway on July 27, after Murray made a teary farewell at Wimbledon and admitted that he would only continue to play on if his body was physically able to do so.
“It is hard, because I would love to keep playing but I can’t,” Murray said as he battled through the tears on Centre Court. “Physically it’s just too tough now. All of the injuries have added up and like I said they haven’t been insignificant.
“I want to play forever. I love this sport. It’s given me so much, taught me loads of lessons over the years that I can use for the rest of my life. I don’t want to stop so it is hard.”
Murray was denied a final match at Wimbledon alongside Emma Raducanu, who pulled out of the mixed doubles on the morning of their match, but the Scot had already hinted that he would play his final tournament at the Olympics if his body allowed, having undergone knee surgery in the build-up to SW19.
“I know that there’s more important things in the world than how I finish playing my last tennis match or where I finished playing my last tennis match,” Murray said last month.
“But because of what I put into the sport over the last however many years, I would at least like to go out playing a proper match where I’m at least competitive, not what happened at Queen’s (a back injury forced a mid-match retirement).
“So I can’t say for sure that if I wasn’t able to play at Wimbledon, and I didn’t recover in time to play at the Olympics, that I wouldn’t consider trying to play another tournament somewhere. But if I’m able to play at Wimbledon and if I’m able to play at the Olympics, that’s most likely going to be it.”
There is a possibility that Murray will depart the sport without a farewell ceremony in the French capital. The International Olympic Committee generally do not offer such option to retiring players at the Games, though International Tennis Federation chief Kelly Fairweather had confirmed that discussions were ongoing.
“If you’re asking about Paris, we obviously fall under the direction of the IOC, and generally the IOC don’t do that (a goodbye ceremony) for any athlete across the Games.”
