Tennis-Murray pulls out of singles in Wimbledon farewell, to play doubles

LONDON - Twice Wimbledon champion Andy Murray pulled out of the singles competition but will play doubles alongside his brother Jamie in his farewell appearance at the Grand Slam, with the 37-year-old saying on Tuesday he had taken the right decision.

Murray, who underwent surgery on June 22 to remove a spinal cyst which was compressing his nerves and made him lose control and power in his right leg, decided he was not fit enough for the demands of singles competition.

"I wanted to sleep on it, make sure I was happy with the decision and give myself the chance when I woke up to see if it felt much better," Murray said, a few hours after his team announced the decision.

"I ran around a bit at home this morning when I got up - it wasn't where I wanted it to be, unfortunately.

"It's probably a few days too soon but I'm proud I worked extremely hard to give myself a chance to play. It's the right decision."

Murray was due to face Czech Tomas Machac on Centre Court in singles on Tuesday, having informed the All England Club that he would take as long as possible to decide.

"Andy - we're sorry to hear you won't be playing singles this year," Wimbledon said on social media.

"But we are so looking forward to seeing you compete in the doubles and celebrating all the memories you have given us."

Fans arriving at Wimbledon to watch Murray were left disappointed as the news spread around the grounds.

"It's a real shame because I really wanted to see him," said Lewis Jones, who could return to watch Murray play doubles.

"We were going to sit on the hill and enjoy his match today so I'm really disappointed. He means everything (to the people). He's a British star at Wimbledon."

Murray said he expected to be competitive when he and his brother take on Australians Rinky Hijikata and John Peers later this week.

"It's not like were going to roll over and lose the match. We've got a good chance of winning," Murray added.

"Me and Jamie play great doubles together and if both of us are fit and well on the court we can definitely win the match."

77-YEAR WAIT

Murray, who in 2013 ended a 77-year wait for a British men's singles champion at Wimbledon and won the trophy again in 2016, had previously said that he was unlikely to continue his career beyond this year and could bow out at the Olympics in Paris.

The tennis competition at the Olympics begins on July 27.

"It was going to be his last (Wimbledon) so I imagine it would have been a fairly memorable thing from that point of view," said Cheryl McBlane.

"We've got Centre Court tickets. So we would have seen him. That's a bit disappointing."

Sally Bolton, the chief executive of the All England Club, had suggested on Monday that Murray could join Fred Perry, the last British men's singles champion before the Scotsman, in having a statue built at the venue.

"As we reflect on the shape of these grounds and we think about the potential development over the road, we've got time to think about where any kind of physical celebration of Andy's career might be," Bolton said.

"In any event, we would want to work with Andy on that and he understandably isn't ready to have those conversations yet. We'll make sure we get this right because this is for all time."

Following a victory over Alexei Popyrin at the Queen's Club Championships in his 1,000th tour-level singles match, Murray withdraw due to the injury while trailing 4-1 in the first set of his second-round match against Jordan Thompson.

The issue had flared up following Murray's participation in the French Open and Stuttgart before Queen's, leaving the former world number one in a race to be fit for Wimbledon, where he has captured two of his three Grand Slam titles.

Murray had revived his career after having hip-resurfacing surgery in 2019 but has struggled to make the latter stages of the leading tournaments and had to deal with an ankle injury sustained at the Miami Open in March.

He was replaced in the Wimbledon draw by experienced Belgian David Goffin.

-(Reuters)