STRONG SINGLES SATISFY MURRAY

DEFENDING champion Andy Murray insists the Olympic tennis tournament remains a strong competition despite Stan Wawrinka joining the growing list of withdrawals. The world No 4 pulled out yesterday citing a back injury, meaning half of the men’s top 10 will miss the event. Wawrinka’s Swiss team-mate Roger Federer has taken the rest of the season off to recover from knee surgery, while Milos Raonic and Tomas Berdych cited concerns over the Zika virus and Dominic Thiem prioritised the ATP Tour. Top-30 players Nick Kyrgios, Bernard Tomic, Richard Gasquet, John Isner, Sam Querrey and Feliciano Lopez are also absent. Murray said: ‘It’s unfortunate with Roger and Stan. They’re two guys who are both great players and capable of winning events like this, so it’s a shame that they aren’t here. ‘But it’s still a pretty strong field, a lot of the top-20 players are here even if unfortunately there’s a few of the top 10 missing.’ Wife Kim and baby daughter Sophia will not be in Rio, although Murray insisted that was not because of health concerns and that the event had never been part of their schedule. The 29-year-old said: ‘I spoke to my doctor and he assured me everything should be OK.’ He frequently cites the gold medal he won in London as his favourite career moment but does not expect it to have any impact on this tournament. ‘The only time when defending a title has felt a bit strange to me was at Wimbledon because you come out and open the tournament and there’s quite a big thing surrounding who’s playing the first match on Centre Court,’ he said. ‘Here it’s totally different conditions, different venue, different country, so I’ll try and treat it like any other tournament and prepare as best I can.’