Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
No French trip as Murray pulls out
ANDY Murray has withdrawn from the French Open and will focus on building up to Wimbledon.
The Scot, who turned 35 yesterday, said in February he would skip the whole clay-court season but then changed his mind and took a wild card into last week’s Madrid Open.
He produced some of his best form since hip surgery to reach the third round, beating Dominic Thiem and Denis Shapovalov before having to pull out of what would have been a first clash with Novak Djokovic since 2017 because of illness.
He remained in the Roland Garros draw and it appeared Murray, who has reunited with coach Ivan Lendl, could opt to play in the year’s second grand slam after all, but he has now pulled out and is sticking to his original plan.
Quite where Murray will play on grass remains to be seen, though, as the tennis world waits for decisions from the ATP and WTA on how to respond to Wimbledon and the Lawn Tennis Association’s banning of Russian and Belarusian players from this summer’s tournaments.
The removal of all ranking points is very much on the table and would severely affect the tour events.
Murray had talked about potentially playing in the Surbiton Trophy, a second-tier Challenger event in London beginning on May 30, before heading to Stuttgart for the ATP tournament the following week.
In 2017 he signed a deal to compete at Queen’s Club for the duration of his career. n NOVAK Djokovic sealed his sixth Italian Open title with a 6-0 7-5 victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas yesterday and insisted he could not have asked for a better lead-up to Roland Garros.
The Serbian has endured a tumultuous 2022, being deported from Australia in January to miss the first grand slam of the year before his decision to remain unvaccinated contributed towards a number of tournaments being skipped due to entry restrictions imposed by various countries.
Most nations are now relaxing rules and Djokovic will resume his quest for major number 21 later this month when he competes in the French Open and he will head there in form after a successful week in Rome, where he failed to drop a set.
“To some extent it’s a relief because after everything that happened at the beginning of the year, it was important for me to win a big title, especially with grand slams coming up where obviously I want to play my best,” the world No 1 told a press conference.
Meanwhile, Iga Swiatek secured a fifth straight title by beating Ons Jabeur 6-2 6-2 to defend her Italian Open crown.