Injury-hit Murray is forced into Wimbledon withdrawal
ANDY Murray has announced his withdrawal from Wimbledon on the eve of the tournament.
The two-time champion had been due to play Benoit Paire in the first round tomorrow and spoke positively about his prospects at a press conference on Saturday, but he has decided best-of-five-set tennis is too demanding at this stage of his comeback from hip surgery.
Murray said in a statement yesterday: “It’s with regret I’m withdrawing from Wimbledon. I’ve made significant progress in practice and matches over the last 10 days but, after lengthy discussions with my team and with a heavy heart, we’ve decided that playing best-of-five-set matches might be a bit too soon in the recovery process.
“We did everything we could to try to be ready in time. I will start practising on the hard courts from tomorrow and continuing with my rehab and recovery and I’m looking forward to the US hard-court season.
“Thanks for all the messages of support and I’m excited to finally be back playing after so long out.”
Following hip surgery in January, Murray finally returned to the match court at Queen’s Club two weeks ago, losing a close match to Nick Kyrgios.
He then took a wild card into the Nature Valley International at Eastbourne and defeated Stan Wawrinka before losing to Kyle Edmund, who has usurped him as British number one.