Too soon for Andy to retire while he’s got the Wil to fight

MATS WILANDER is a former world No.1. He won three French Opens, his first as a 17-year-old in 1982. He won three Davis Cup titles and is probably the least remembered truly great player of all time. Which is odd. It may be something to do with the fact he isn’t Bjorn Borg, the man he took the Swedish baton from directly.

He won seven majors, more than Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker and Jim Courier. He has four more slams than Andy Murray.

Clearly Mats is a tennis authority and has every right to speak his mind. His employers this week are Eurosport and they have an expectation he share his honestly held opinion.

That is what he did after Murray lost to Stan Wawrinka, saying: ‘I would love to hear him say why he is out there. He needs to stop thinking of himself and start thinking about who he was.

‘Does he have a right to be out there taking wildcards from young players?’

This has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, including Murray who reproduced Wilander’s thoughts on his Instagram page and just said, ‘Love this,’ in response.

I thought Mats was clumsy in expressing these thoughts and I don’t agree Murray being in the draw is taking a place from anybody who deserves it more than he does. Murray’s record speaks for itself and there is no tournament director in the world who would not want him in their draw.

What Wilander said in a roundabout way about motivation is all the more intriguing. Given Murray’s epic journey back from having a new hip and given his age, the 33-year-old must be asking himself the same question after such a one-sided match.

His old foe Wawrinka was fantastic, hitting more than 40 winners in heavy conditions against a brilliant defensive player. Murray didn’t play well, he served poorly and was unable to get into the match. That happens and you don’t quit when you suffer a setback.

The question is how many years will Murray want to try to get back into the top bracket? Can he do it as the big titles shift to a younger generation?

If we have learnt anything about Andy over more than 15 years it’s that if there is a way, then he has the will to find it. I can’t help but imagine he has a big run in a major event left in him.

Should he quit? That’s entirely up to him. He enjoys the dressing room, he loves the fight during matches and he gets a kick out of winning. Play on, Andy. You’re a long time retired.