Andy Murray has confirmed he will retire after the Olympics, saying Paris 2024 will be his “last ever tennis tournament”.
It had been widely expected that the 37-year-old Scot would call time on his career after the Games as he looked to go out at the top.
Murray was recently robbed of a Wimbledon farewell in the singles after he had surgery on a spinal cyst just a week before the tournament began.
The three-time grand slam champion, who is the only man to have won two Olympic tennis singles gold medals, said on Instagram: “Arrived in Paris for my last ever tennis tournament @Olympics.
“Competing for (Team GB) have been by far the most memorable weeks of my career and I’m extremely proud to get do it one final time!”
Murray first represented Team GB at the Beijing Games in 2008 but it was his gold medal performance at London 2012 which took his career to the next level.
He won his first grand slam at the US Open a month later and then became the first British Wimbledon champion in 77 years the following year.
The Scot, who led Great Britain to an historic Davis Cup victory in 2015, then won his second Wimbledon crown in 2016 and followed it up by becoming the only man to win two Olympic gold medals in the singles when he topped the podium in Rio in 2016.
But a chronic hip injury derailed his career and he needed a metal plate inserting into the joint in 2019.
The final few years of his career were played against a backdrop of no longer being physically capable of achieving the level which saw him become the world number one at the end of 2016.
At the start of 2024, amid constant questions of how long he would continue playing, Murray said he planned to finish at some point in the summer, but was vague as to the exact date.
He was planning on one last Wimbledon swansong in the singles but was cruelly robbed after suffering a back injury in a warm-up event at Queen’s which required surgery.
- Wimbledon titles in 2013 and 2016
- Olympic gold medals in 2012 and 2016
- US Open champion in 2012
- Led Great Britain to Davis Cup title in 2015
- Became world number one in 2016
It ruled him out of the singles but he was able to play the doubles with his brother Jamie, but lost in the first round in a Centre Court farewell.
However, he has recovered sufficiently to be fit for the singles in Paris and travelled with the rest of the squad to the French capital on Monday.
He resisted the temptation to bow out at next month’s US Open, the site of his first grand slam success, announcing on Tuesday that the Roland Garros tournament would be his last.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
