DUBAI:
Andy Murray
– two-time
Wimbledon
champion and twice singles gold medalist at the Olympics – will hang up his racket not long after the summer of 2024 has faded into fall.
Murray, a former No.1, who underwent hip surgeries in January 2018 and again 12 months later, said he is bored of the retirement question.
“I'm likely not going to play past this summer,” said Murray moments after he went down 2-6, 4-6 to the fifth seed
Ugo Humbert
in the second round of the
Dubai Duty Free tennis championships
on Wednesday.
“I get asked about it after every single match, every single tournament that I play. I'm bored of the question, to be honest,” the 36-year-old said. “I'm not going to talk more about that between now and whenever the time comes for me to stop. But yeah, I don't plan on playing much past this summer.”
If selected, Murray will play the 2024
Paris Olympics
to be held at Roland Garros a couple of weeks after Wimbledon in July.
The Scot is not playing the French Open only as preparation for the Olympics.
“I like the tournament. I like playing at Roland Garros,” he said adding, “Obviously if you want to do well at the Olympics, you probably are going to have to play some tournaments and get matches on the clay. Even if the Olympics was not after Wimbledon, I would still want to play Roland Garros.”
The Scot has made one final and four semifinals at the French Open but has played the clay court Slam just once after his hip surgeries.
“Last few years I've tried to give myself better preparation for the grass season, but that also doesn't guarantee that you're going to play really well on the grass,” he said.
“I've had experiences throughout my career where I didn't play the French Open in 2013 and I won Wimbledon. I also played the French Open and did really well in 2016. I don't think it makes a huge difference if you get an extra week's practice or so on the grass.”
Asked to pick between Wimbledon and the Olympics, Murray said, “Being British, Wimbledon is obviously an extremely special tournament. So I mean I would have to probably say Wimbledon.”
“The Olympics, I'd love to be part of that,” he said. “It's been some of the best experiences of my career, being part of the British team. When I got to carry the flag out in Rio, it was an amazing, amazing moment.”
English (US) ·