British tennis star Andy Murray made an honest admission after a 7-6(6), 6-4 defeat in the 2024 Wimbledon men’s doubles alongside brother Jamie to John Peers and Rinky Hijikata saying that he is ready to finish playing tennis.
Murray pulled out of men’s singles earlier this week as he had undergone back surgery last month but wanted to play men’s and mixed doubles in his last Wimbledon appearance.
After his defeat in men’s doubles, the 37-year-old legend was honoured by Wimbledon where a montage consisting of his legendary career was shown on the big screen. Names like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and others appeared in the video capturing the 37-year-old’ memorable time on the court.
"It wasn't something that I'd asked for," said Murray. "When I was making the decision around the singles, the club spoke to me and said they would like to do something after one of my matches here. I think if I'd played singles, then would do it after I potentially lost in the singles. If the singles doesn't happen, we'd like to have it after the first doubles match, regardless of the result.
"I'm thankful to them that they did it. I don't know, it feels like an ending to me. Whether I deserve it or not, I don't know. But they did a really, really good job."
He admitted that it is time to retire before adding that if it was upto him he would play but his body does not allow him to play like he used to anymore.
"I'm ready to finish playing," he added. "I don't want that to be the case. I would love to play, like I said, forever. But, today, even though it was a doubles match where physically it's obviously not as demanding, it's still really hard for me.
"My serve speeds and everything are like so far behind where they usually would be. I'm sure that would come back with time once I recover from the injury and everything.
"This year's been tough with the ankle, then obviously the back surgery, obviously the hip. I'm ready to finish playing because I can't play to the level that I would want to anymore. I know that it's time now. Yeah, I'm ready for that."
Andy Murray will now play alongside Emma Raducanu in Wimbledon mixed doubles against Marcelo Arevalo and Zhang Shuai on Saturday.
