British three times Grand Slam winner, Andy Murray has announced he is retiring from Tennis after this year’s Wimbledon.
Holding back tears, the former ATP No. 1 player admitted the decision was born out of pain from an hip injury he sustained in 2016.
“I spoke to my team, and I told them, ‘I cannot keep doing this,’
“I needed to have an end point because I was sort of 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 also not certain I am able to do that.”
In 2012, Murray became the first British male singles champion at a Grand Slam tournament in 76 years when he won the United States Open. He also Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016 and has also played in 8 Grand Slam finals.
Murray broke down after a reporter asked about his hip-injury. “Yeah, not great,” he said before leaving the room as tears threatened to fall.
He returned three minutes later and continued: “Yeah, not feeling good,
“Obviously, I’ve been struggling for a long time. I have been in a lot of pain. Well, it’s been probably about 20 months now.
“I have pretty much done everything that I could to try and get my hip feeling better, and it hasn’t helped loads. I’m in a better place than I was six months ago but still in a lot of pain. Yeah, it has been tough.”
He also said the pain was the main reason he was retiring.
“I can still play to a level — not a level that I’m happy playing at,” Murray said on Friday. “It’s not just that: The pain is too much, really. I don’t want to continue playing that way. I think I have tried pretty much everything I could to get it right, and that hasn’t worked.
“I can play with limitations, that’s not an issue,” Murray said. “It’s having the limitations, and also the pain is not allowing me to enjoy competing, training or any of the stuff I love about tennis.”
Murray’s hard-working yet likeable personality makes him popular among his peers, both male and female, the later particularly for his vocal support of Women’s tennis.
He didn’t rule out the Australian Open being his last tournament.
“There’s a chance of that, for sure,” he said. “Yeah, like I said, I am not sure I am able to play through the pain for another four or five months.”
“I have talked a lot, way too much, about my hip for 18 months,” He said. “It’s a daily thing. It isn’t just people I work with that ask me; it’s everyone. So everyone I bump into, that is all I talk about it. It’s pretty draining.”
He said he has tried a lot of things that didn’t really help.
“But nothing helps because you are in lots, lots and lots of pain,” he added. “You cannot do what it is that you want to do, and you love doing. Or I can do it, but it’s not fun or enjoyable doing it anymore.
“That is what I have done. I have tried to deal with it, talked about it, but none of that makes my hip feel better, unfortunately. I wish it did, because if it did, it would be feeling brilliant right now. But it doesn’t.”
Murray was Knighted at 29.