Murray announces plan to retire this year

By Katie Finnegan for MurraysWorld.com on January 11, 2019, 12:06 pm

An emotional Andy Murray has announced that he plans to retire at this year's Wimbledon, although he admitted that the Australian Open could be the last tournament of his career.

Murray has struggled to recover from a chronic hip injury and from surgery on his right hip last January. Unfortunately, despite going through intensive rehabilitation, he continues to be in pain.

He was forced to end his season early last year and has played only 14 matches since last June.

In a press conference in Melbourne where Murray was often tearful, the former world number one explained that the pain is too severe for him to carry on.

“In my training block in December I spoke to my team and told them: ‘I cannot keep doing this’. I needed to have an end point, because I was playing with no idea when the pain was going to stop. I felt like making that decision.

I said to my team: ‘Look, I think I can get through this until Wimbledon.’ That’s where I would like to stop playing, but I am not certain I am able to do that.”

He is considering having a further operation – which involves resurfacing his hip – to give him a better quality of life. But there are no guarantees whether he'd be able to recover sufficiently well to play professional tennis.

“If I was to have an operation for that, I would rehab correctly, do it properly to give my hip the best chance of being good as it can be. I am also realistic. I know that’s not an easy thing to come back to or play professional sport to a high level.”

Tributes have been pouring in from his fellow players and fans. Juan Martin del Potro, himself no stranger to injury problems, tweeted:

Andy, just watched your conference. Please don’t stop trying. Keep fighting. I can imagine your pain and sadness. I hope you can overcome this. You deserve to retire on your own terms, whenever that happens. We love you @andy_murray and we want to see you happy and doing well.

Murray still intends to play his first-round match at the Australian Open, against Spain's Roberto Bautista-Agut. It could be the last match of his career. He is sure to get a very warm reception at a tournament where he has always done so well.

As Murray's brilliant career draws to a close, one thing is for certain – he has changed British tennis and earned his place in world tennis history. Through talent, hard work and determination, he fought his way to the top of the sport. Tennis will miss him a lot.