What's amazing is, the entire top 5 at the end of 2016 are all out of the USO. Never seen anything like this before...

I'm actually quite relieved at this decision, I was anxious about how his hip would hold up and it's no fun watching him whilst worrying about an injury as well. Hopefully he really takes some time out now to get 100% fit, even if that means missing the rest of the year and hopefully he can have a decent crack at 2018.

This feels like the beginning of the end.

Djokovic, Wawrinka and Nishikori are all out for the rest of the season, is it the end for them too? What it must be like to live in your World, I bet your bunker is already built for the imminent Zombie apocalypse cos you watched a few episodes of the Walking dead.

thanks gnome - I couldn't see where it says it will be  21 weeks as at the point he drops on 21 August?  Of course it doesn't really matter but somehow 42 sounds that much better than 41 but that's purely subjective!   A pretty illustrious group ahead of him for the most part anyway and a few big names behind him,  I was surprised Leyton Hewitt was so many weeks in a stretch at no 1.

The reason the ATP still shows Andy as number 1 is because they don't update until Monday the following week. In the live rankings, Nadal is number 1 right now because Andy's 600 points drop off from last year http://live-tennis.eu/en/atp-live-ranking

So this week doesn't get included in Andy's total weeks at number 1. For confirmation purposes, I checked here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ATP_number_1_ranked_singles_tennis_players

If you scroll down a bit, it states Andy's number 1 status ends 20th August which is the date the ATP update their rankings officially.

No  Country       Player                   start date                    end date                   weeks    total
26  GBR              Andy Murray      November 7, 2016     August 20, 2017       41           41

Gnome I thought it would be 42 weeks as he doesn't actually drop down to no 2 till next week, despite the BBC suggesting otherwise?  Or have I got that wrong? 
Either way I agree: I thought Novak would block his path to no 1 until it was time for the next gen to leap frog over him.  That he managed to stay up there so long during months of illness and injury shows just what he achieved at the end of last year.  At least with Fed out of Cinci I think he drops to no 2 rather than no 3 as he'll be a whole 5 points ahead of fed!

His run of 41 weeks includes this week (up to the 21st August)

http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/rankings/former-no-1s

So Andy will end his 1st stint as number 1 with 41 weeks. I think most of us here would have been happy with 1 week let alone 41 so he's surpassed our wildest dreams. In retrospect with the year he's had, it has been quite fortuitous that he's managed to hold onto it for this long, but id does go to show how well he did last year. By fortuitous, I mean if Djokovic hadn't had injury issues himself, he would have probably been #1 some time ago.

This is interesting

http://www.ubitennis.net/blog/2017/07/23/novak-djokovic-hold-press-conference-following-elbow-treatment/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Usually when a player states they are going to issue a statement in advance, it usually means something big is about to be announced 

This is all very depressing 

Yeah Sam, i'm sure Andy decided to pretend he was in pain when he was 2-1 up in sets, what a tool.

http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/tennis/Wimbledon/andy-murray-starts-rehabilitation-immediately-after-wimbledon-exit-with-one-eye-on-us-open-a3587286.html

Confusing article 

"In the wake of his 6-3, 4-6, 7-6, 6-1, 6-1 defeat, Murray said he would have no rest day and it would be “back to work” immediately, adding that there was “no time to waste”.

then

"However, Murray’s camp are confident the issue can be addressed by rest and rehabilitation, while the player himself said he would seek “the best possible medical advice”  in a bid to get back to full form and fitness."

Well Raonic aint winning, not the way he's getting dismantled here by Federer. I don't mind who wins, just not Djokovic. His attitude the whole tournament has been disgusting, gone right off him as a player.

There's a storm brewing on twitter right now over Novak having to wait until tomorrow to play, people are scratching their heads and wondering why his match wasn't moved to CC. Wimbledon have said it's due to safety concerns but I seem to remember them doing that scenario a few years back when a match involving Simon was moved. They aren't doing themselves any favours here, with fingers being pointed that the organisers are doing everything they can for a Murray vs Federer final.

Another thing i'd like to add, Murray played 2 matches against unorthodox players who didn't give Andy any rhythm at all. To suddenly come up against Fognini it's no surprise he was a bit apprehensive.

i have to say, unless he comes out a completely different player on monday, it's tough to think too highly of his chances at winning this tournament now. great guts and fight to survive but the game is just not there. the first decent baseliner he plays against and he was just getting dominated at will. what's even more concerning is that he is just so passive right now. no one expects murray to come out and blast his forehand every other shot but he didn't even seem to be trying to move fognini around the court or using any angles or his slice or anything. it was literally just pushing for a lot of the match. that's not going to get it done. i'm hoping that it's simply a case of him struggling with fognini and not being at his best today because otherwise he's not long for the tournament, be that due to a lack of form or injury.

Winning matches like this is exactly how you rediscover form    Last year he scraped past Paire playing horrendous and then went on to win virtually every event he entered. I mean, when does the criticism stop? if he wins Wimbledon by scraping through every match on good fortune alone, do you then say "well yeah he won Wimbledon but he looked dodgy to me and got extremely lucky"

How many times has a top player had a dodgy match during a slam run but then gone on to win it? in the 2 times he won Wimbledon he has had horror shows. In 2013 he was 2 sets down to Verdasco, and last year he lost a 2 set lead against Tsonga.

I would have thought the glass half empty brigade here would understand this after years of watching tennis. I'm not suggesting Murray will win Wimbledon playing like he did today, but he's still in the tournament and has as much chance of winning it as everybody else who makes it to week 2.

[I don't give a monkeys]

This is true.  I don't give a monkeys (no pun intended) as long as he feels fit and playing well !