Scotland’s Andy Murray withdraws from Wimbledon with a hip problem.
WIMBLEDON, England — Two-time champion Andy Murray withdrew from Wimbledon on Sunday, the eve of this year’s tournament, citing a persistent hip injury.
“I’ve made significant progress in practice and matches over the last 10 days, but after lengthy discussions with my team, we’ve decided that playing best-of-five-set matches might be a bit too soon in the recovery process,” Murray said in a statement on his Facebook page. “We did everything we could to try to be ready in time.”
The daunting nature of bestof-five matches, which the men play at Grand Slam events, probably has been a factor in the greater number of withdrawals from the men’s side of recent major tournaments. (Also a factor: a new rule that allows injured players to earn 50 percent of the first-round prize money at Grand Slam tournaments if they withdraw before their first match.)
Murray was the seventh man to withdraw from Wimbledon in the past week; only one woman has withdrawn. In May, eight men withdrew from the French Open before the first round, compared with two women.
Murray played through the hip injury at Wimbledon last year and survived four rounds. But he faded quickly as his quarterfinal match against Sam Querrey grew longer, ultimately losing, 3-6, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-1.
Murray had a hip operation in January in Melbourne after withdrawing from the Australian Open. After 11 months out of competition, Murray returned at an ATP tournament on grass last month at Queen’s Club in London. He lost his first match to Nick Kyrgios 2-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5.
Murray then took a wild card into another grass-court tournament the following week in Eastbourne, England. He handily won his first match over Stan Wawrinka before losing to No. 18 Kyle Edmund, now the highestranked British man, 6-4, 6-4.
Murray, 31, had been scheduled to face 48th-ranked Benoît Paire in the first round of Wimbledon on Tuesday.
“I’m sad for him, because he’s a good guy,” Paire said. “I hope for him his recovery will be good for the next tournaments. For me, he’s one of the most important players on the tour.”