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Andy Murray's decision to withdraw from Wimbledon on Sunday, his third last-minute withdrawal from one of the majors since his defeat in the quarterfinals a year ago, has left the tennis fans baffled.
The two-time Wimbledon champion explained that he did not think he had a realistic chance of winning the title and that he was not sure he could survive a match of five innings.
Scot, who has just turned 31 and is currently nursing a chronic painful hip, will now be preparing for another charge at the US Open in September. The hip that he reshaped in a Melbourne hospital on January 8 healed to his satisfaction, he says, but he needs the badurance that he is able to survive in the heat of the elite competition.
His decision came only 24 hours after He declared that he was ready and eager to play, though he was not suffering from the aftermath of recent games and training sessions.
He explained Sunday night that he had lengthy discussions with his support team and one of his medical advisers. Bryan Walsh, before changing his mind
"I did not know how I would react to five-set matches," he said. "I went through a similar situation last year when I went to Wimbledon.I did not feel well before [the tournament] last year but I decided to play.I know how it ended [he lost in five painful sets in the quarter-finals to Sam Querrey and quit the Tour for the rest of the year].
"There was also a little of that in the back of my mind, and I thought," Let's make sure we're not wrong. I have made progress in the last month, which was not really the case for [PREVIOUS] 10 or 11 months. I was going in the right direction. [NOW] I put myself in a situation that I have not been able to reproduce at practice or in practice recently – which may be a little pointless to do at this point. 19659008] He added: "Normally, when I get ready for Wimbledon and after a few days, I feel nervous, stressed and excited, I did not really feel like that this time, I did not have it. impression of going to win the tournament There were just so many unknowns.It is a very, very different mentality going into the event.They were all signs that this n & # 39; Maybe it was not the right thing to do
"It was hard because I really wanted to play. Once you are back on the field of play, you do not want to take what you think is going back in some ways. It's also positive in many ways that I've been through these last two weeks. What I would not have done was play three or four games, go to the second week and feel bad "
This was the perfectionist who was talking. The former world number one – who views Wimbledon as his shrine and the Court Center as his favorite place – was clearly an outsider at his national tournament, but he arrived with low expectations and seemed happy to be back on the Tower. Yet his competitive spirit would not let him go unexpectedly. It had to be all or nothing – something that he surely did well before his announcement.
Although he has played only three competitive matches since his defeat to Querrey – against Nick Kyrgios at Queen's and Stan Wawrinka and Kyle Edmund at Eastbourne last week. He struck the ball with authority and seemed satisfied with his progress.
In a long and optimistic briefing on Saturday, he had seemed satisfied and confident. He wanted to play – and would, "unless in the next few days I wake up and do not feel good."
He did not practice on Sunday, suggesting that he had doubts – even though he had not planned to play his first match before Tuesday, against the Benoît Paire, whom he had beaten during his only two games.
"I have not experienced any setbacks in practice, I have not been out of a particular training session, and I feel bad, just thinking about the last 10 days." was positive 10 days, two weeks.I decided to play at Queen & # 39; s. Given the circumstances, I think I pretty much fought against the level of opposition that I'm experiencing. In the workouts too, it 's not as if any of them had killed me and I' ve completely lost the pace. I was competing against everyone I played against in practice. "
The game that put the most doubt in his mind was the three-setter over two hours and 39 minutes against Kyrgios. "I know what I felt after the match, there was a bit of that in my mind, thinking," If I played a five-match match and it lasted four hours, how am I going to feel? "
" I feel comfortable with the decision. is good for me at this point, in the long run. If I thought I would not be playing at Wimbledon anymore, it would be a different decision and obviously I would be there and I would just play to enjoy it and potentially play my last Wimbledon. But I want to play a few more years and I hope to be back in competition at the top of the game. "
Still, full of doubts and confirming his worst fears, he revealed:" I'm going to start m & # 39; to train on hard ground. from tomorrow and continue with my rehabilitation and recovery. I look forward to the US season on the ground.
This is the fifth in seven tournament that Murray has retired at the last minute or so. He was treating a chronically painful hip – which required surgery in January – he retired from the US Open last September, from the Brisbane Open to the New Year, to the Open House. Australia and more recently an ATP250 Grbadcourt tournament in Rosmalen in the Netherlands. 19659002] The only person who probably sees the news positively is Pair. He plays the lucky loser Jason Jung, a 29-year-old American who plays for Taipei and is ranked 154 in the world – two places better than Murray but a little distant from him in terms of ambition and ability.
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