Two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray has decided to opt out of featuring at this season’s Championship. A hip injury is said to be the cause of this withdrawal that has left the draw a wee bit lighter.
Murray, who had recently had a hip surgery for his troublesome injury, finally returned to competitive tennis with participation at Queen’s and Eastbourne but lost out to Nick Krygios and Kyle Edmund in those respective tournaments. There have been doubts over his participation since, especially since the Wimbledon is played over five sets and that’s what seems to have forced him to pull out.
The Briton player said in a statement it would have been too early to start playing five-setters and that was the main reason for his decision to withdraw from the third Grand Slam of the year.
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He said:
“It is with a heavy heart that I’m announcing that I’ll be withdrawing from Wimbledon this year.”
“I’ve made significant progress in practice and matches over the last ten days, but after lengthy discussions with my team, we’ve decided that playing best of five set matches might be a bit too soon in the recovery process. We did everything we could to try to be ready in time.”
“I will start practising on the hard courts from tomorrow and continuing with my rehab and recovery and I’m looking forward to the US hardcourt season.”
The hard-court season begins in August with some of the top tournaments lined up in the lead-up to the 2018 US Open that will begin from August 27 this year.
Murray explained he had had no setbacks from the surgery recuperation but he had made the correct call in deciding to withdraw from the tournament.
He also said he will look to make changes to his schedule in a bid to “look after his body better.”
The Brit also said it wasn’t as if he was going to enter the competition as a favourite to win the title or even go deep into the tournament. He explained it might have been different had this been the last time he was playing Wimbledon.
Murray’s opening match was expected to be against Benoit Paire on Tuesday but his withdrawal means his French opponent will now face a lucky loser in Jason Jung. Jung has never played in a main round match at any Grand Slam tournament before this.
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