Andy Murray will wait “until the last minute” before deciding whether or not to take part at Wimbledon, insisting he's "earned that right to do that".
Murray, who won the men's singles title in 2013 and 2016, had been a doubt for SW19 after undergoing surgery on a spinal cyst. The Scot has now admitted: “I would say it's probably more likely that I'm not able to play singles right now.” He also added: “ I'm f****** doing rehab 24/7 to try to give myself that opportunity to play there again.”
The 37-year-old has said playing doubles with his brother is most likely and doesn't want to end his career with his forced retiral at Queen’s Club last week. The 2024 Championships was tipped to Murray's swansong. Organisers at Wimbledon have been making contingency plans for a retirement announcement from the Scot, though CEO Sally Bolton insisted "It’s Andy’s decision and we’ll be led by him".
Murray went on to say: “Obviously the last week's been pretty tough. There's obviously a lot going on with me planning on finishing at the Olympics.
“I'm trying everything I can to play, I'm practising on the court, I'm rehabbing and trying to accelerate this process to give myself a chance to play. It has been mentioned to me, are you going to withdraw before the draw at 10am on Friday? And I'm like: ‘Well, no, I'm not. I'm going to wait until the last minute to see if I'm going to be able to and I've earned that right to do that’."
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Two of Murray's three career Grand Dlam singles titles came in SW19, following a US Open triumph in 2012. He beat Novak Djokovic in the 2013 final, before claiming a straight-sets win against Milos Raonic three years later.
That 2016 win represents the last time Murray has reached a Grand Slam final, with injuries plaguing him in the latter part of his career. He took part in the Australian Open and French Open this year, but suffered first-round exits in both.
Murray was forced to pull out at Queen's Club earlier in the summer (PA)Murray believes he's earned the right to wait until the 11th hour before making his final call. “Maybe it's my ego getting in the way but I feel that I deserve the opportunity to give it until the very last moment to make that decision," he said.
"If I was to be playing on Monday, I may know on Sunday there's no chance that I can play. it's not going to recover overnight from where it is enough to allow me to play. So a decision to play singles, I may be able to make that on Sunday or whatever. But also if it is progressing…I'm on the court yesterday and I'm able to go on the court and move around more today and start to do more sort of tennis movements and stuff.
“I'm not necessarily going to know how that's going to change over the next 48 to 72 hours. If I'm not able to play singles, I don't know exactly when the first round doubles matches start, but there's a difference with how I'm recovering to play on a Monday as opposed to playing on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday. The rate that I'm improving just know, if that was to continue then an extra 72 to 96 hours makes a huge difference. It's complicated, and it's made more complicated because I want to play at Wimbledon one more time.”
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