Murray’s focus on Wimbledon as he pulls out of Open
Dunblane tennis ace Sir Andy Murray has withdrawn from the second Grand Slam of the season after pulling out of the French Open to focus on building up to Wimbledon this summer.
The 35-year-old double Wimbledon champ said back in February that he would skip the whole clay-court season but then changed his mind and took a wild card into last week’s
Madrid Open.
He produced some of his best form since hip surgery to reach the third round, beating Dominic Thiem and Denis Shapovalov before having to pull out of what would have been a first clash with Novak Djokovic since 2017 due to illness.
He remained in the Roland Garros draw and it appeared that Murray, who has reunited with his coach Ivan Lendl, could opt to play in the year’s second Grand Slam after all, but he is now sticking to his original plan.
Quite where Murray will play on grass remains to be seen, though, as the tennis world awaits decisions from the ATP and WTA on how to respond to Wimbledon and the Lawn Tennis Association’s banning of Russian and Belarusian players from this summer’s tournaments.
Murray had talked about potentially playing in the Surbiton Trophy, a second-tier Challenger event in London beginning on May 30, before heading to Stuttgart for the ATP tournament the following week. In 2017 he signed a deal to compete at Queen’s Club for the duration of his career.
TRICKY WINGER,25, RELEASED BY CLUB