The former world champion, Sir Andy Murray, has confirmed his withdrawal from this year’s Wimbledon men’s singles event to recover from a recent surgery. However, he hopes to play the men’s doubles with his brother Jamie Murray.
In this regard, the statement from his team noted that Murray was putting much effort into his recovery when the process was considered a week ago.
“Unfortunately, despite working incredibly hard on his recovery since his operation just over a week ago, Andy has taken the tough decision not to play the singles this year,” the statement read.
“As you can imagine, he is gutted but has confirmed that he will play in the doubles with Jamie and looks forward to competing at Wimbledon for the last time.”
Murray had said he would have to retire from tennis after the Paris Olympics but has been racing against time to make it into the Wimbledon singles draw.
He withdrew from last month’s Queen’s Club tournament because of injury and subsequently underwent surgery to remove a spinal cyst.
This comes despite Murray being optimistic that he could still feature at Wimbledon.
Last Thursday, he said he would wait “until the very last moment” before deciding if he could play in the tournament.
Scheduled to face Czech Tomas Machac, Murray was due to take Centre Court on Tuesday as the third match of the day.
Murray told Sky News over the weekend, but the 33-year-old still has no “100% feeling” in his right leg.
He admitted that he does not know about his condition but wants to play Wimbledon once more. “I don’t feel like it is too much to ask to play at Wimbledon one more time,” he said.
Although he finally scrapped the notion of going for the singles, Murray had been looking forward to having the opportunity to make his Wimbledon doubles debut with his brother Jamie.
“If I get to play doubles with Jamie, that will be really special. Not just for me, but for him and the rest of our family. We have never done that before,” he said.