‘I’m ready to finish’: Andy Murray admits time is right to end tennis career

Andy Murray says the time has come to shut the door on his illustrious career after he and his brother, Jamie, were defeated in the first round of the men’s doubles at his final Wimbledon.

“I’m ready to finish playing because I can’t play to the level that I would want to any more,” he said. “That’s something that I guess is a bit out of my control. If I knew my body was going to be able to do it, I would play – there’s nothing about the sport that I hate and I’m like, I don’t want to do it any more for this reason. I like the travelling. I love the competition, practising, trying to get better, all those things. Yeah, I know that it’s time now. I’m ready for that.”

On Thursday evening, Andy and Jamie Murray were defeated 7-6 (6), 6-4 on Centre Court by the Australians Rinky Hijikata and John Peers in what will be one of Andy’s final matches of his career. Twelve days earlier, Andy had back surgery to remove a spinal cyst. Although the 37-year-old had been unable to recover in time to compete in the singles draw, Murray returned to play doubles.

After a 19-year career that has included three grand slam triumphs, Andy plans to retire from professional tennis at the end of this summer. After this defeat, the All England Club held a presentation to commemorate his career. Numerous former champions and current players stood by the court to recognise Andy, including Novak Djokovic, Tim Henman, Iga Swiatek, John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova.

“Look, it was really nice,” said Andy. “When the video was playing, my head was spinning a lot. I know I’m about to have to speak. It’s difficult in those moments ’cause there’s a lot of people you want to thank and address, but it is not easy. It was pretty emotional, as well. Watching the video was nice, but hard as well, for me because you know it’s coming to the end of something that you’ve absolutely loved doing, yeah, for such a long time. So that’s difficult.”

Andy will play for the final time at Wimbledon in the mixed doubles competition, in which he will partner Emma Raducanu. Andy, a two-time Olympic gold medallist, will then compete at the Paris Olympics, his fifth Olympic games, before retiring. Asked what he feels his legacy is, he said he is most proud of his enduring effort and discipline.

“I think the thing that I did a really good job of during my career was that, regardless of the highs and lows, whether it was winning tournaments, having difficult losses, an operation, a setback, that I was able to treat the next day like I always came into work with the same dedication, work ethic and passion, as I had the day before, regardless of the highs and lows that the sport kind of has thrown at me,” said Murray. “I certainly didn’t always get it right. Like on the match days, I was not perfect by any stretch, but I did always come into work and put in a good day. I gave my best effort. That’s what I’m proud of.”