UK
Andy Murray pulls out of Wimbledon singles but confirms his aim to play in the doubles
Sir Andy Murray has announced he will not be competing in this year’s Wimbledon men’s singles tournament but still hopes to play in the men’s doubles.
His team said in a statement: “Unfortunately, despite working incredibly hard on his recovery since his operation just over a week ago, Andy has taken the very difficult decision not to play the singles this year.
“As you can imagine, he is extremely disappointed but has confirmed that he will be playing in the doubles with Jamie and looks forward to competing at Wimbledon for the last time.”
The 37-year-old previously announced he was planning to retire from tennis after the Olympics in Paris this summer.
The news comes on a big day for British players at Wimbledon, with British No1 Katie Boulter opening her campaign and Jack Draper taking to centre court later today.
Former British men’s number one Cameron Norrie, who made the semi-finals in 2022 where he lost to Novak Djokovic, is also back and could meet Draper in the second round.
Emma Raducanu won her opening match at the tournament on Monday, saying she took inspiration from England’s victory over Slovakia at the Euros by “winning ugly”.
Sir Andy during a practice session. Pic: Reuters
Sir Andy said last Thursday he would wait “until the very last moment” to decide if he could play at SW19 one final time.
He had been in a race against time to compete after pulling out of the Queen’s Club tournament last month due to injury.
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The former world number one had surgery following his withdrawal from Queen’s to remove a spinal cyst but was still hoping to play today against Czech Tomas Machac.
He was down to play third on centre court, with the first match due to get under way at 1.30pm, meaning he would have been unlikely to start until a few hours later.
But Sir Andy will now be competing in the doubles at Wimbledon with his brother Jamie for the first time.
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Speaking to Sky News at the weekend, Sir Andy had said he didn’t have “100% feeling” in his right leg – but did not feel it was “too much to ask” to play at Wimbledon one more time.
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He said his injury “improved significantly in the last week” but he did not know whether that was going to be enough.
And while ultimately he has now decided he cannot compete in the singles, he was excited to line up alongside his older brother for the doubles.
“[If] I get to play doubles with Jamie, that’ll be really special. Not just for me, but also for Jamie and all of our family. We’ve never done that before.”