Britain’s former World No.1 player Andy Murray has been forced to withdraw from the upcoming Australian Open.
Murray speaking in a short statement: “I’ll be flying home shortly to assess all the options but I appreciate all the messages of support and I hope to be back playing soon.”
Murray has not played a competitive tournament since his quarter-final defeat to Sam Querrey at Wimbledon in July as a result of a serious hip injury.
There had been hope that Murray would be fit to return to the tour after exhibitions against Roger Federer in Scotland, and more recently against Roberto Bautista Agut in Abu Dhabi. However, Murray was well beaten by Bautista Agut and despite practising with the likes of Kyle Edmund ahead of the Brisbane event, another tournament Murray withdrew from, the injury has proven too much.
Murray becomes the second high-profile Men’s tennis player to withdraw from 2018’s first grand slam. Japanese star Kei Nishikori is also out after also failing to recover from injury.
Doubts remain over World No.1 Rafael Nadal, who like Murray withdrew from the Brisbane International. Nadal has been struggling in the off-season with a new injury that forced him to withdraw from the Paris Masters and the ATP Finals after his group loss to David Goffin at the end of last season.
Novak Djokovic is another one with injury concerns. The Serbian had been due to face Roberto Bautista Agut in Abu Dhabi, with Murray a late replacement after Djokovic’s elbow caused him pain. Like Murray Djokovic has not played competitively since Wimbledon. The five time former Australian Open champion is not playing a tour event, but is playing a pair of exhibitions to ascertain his fitness before confirming whether he will play in Melbourne.
On the women’s side, there was more bad news for British tennis fans as Johanna Konta was forced to retire from her match with Elina Svitolina. Konta appeared to be suffering from a hip injury and retired midway through the third set.
