McEnroe defends timing of Murray’s US Open withdrawal

John McEnroe has defended the timing of Andy Murray’s withdrawal from the US Open after Rafael Nadal described it as strange.

Nadal said following his first-round win over Dusan Lajovic in New York that it was “difficult to understand” why Murray pulled out on Saturday, after the draw but still two days before his scheduled first match.

“You don’t retire Saturday morning. You retire Monday morning or Sunday afternoon. If not, you can do it before the draw. That’s why I say it’s strange,” said the Spaniard.

Murray decided after his practice session on Saturday lunchtime that his troublesome hip was too sore to allow him to compete.

Had he pulled out before Friday’s draw, the seedings would have been reshuffled and Roger Federer moved to number two, meaning he and Nadal would not have been in the same half.

Instead, fifth seed Marin Cilic was moved into Murray’s slot, and McEnroe believes criticism should be directed towards the International Tennis Federation’s rules rather than the Scot.

The Eurosport analyst said: “I don’t blame Murray at all because he waited as long as he can to see if that hip would react in a positive way so I think it’s just bad luck for him that it didn’t.

“I don’t know exactly what the rules are but when he pulled out they should have put Roger Federer on the bottom half of the draw and that would be problem solved.

“Instead they have some crazy rule and I don’t get it. I think a fair amount of people saw it coming. Andy was waiting as late as possible.”