Andy Murray declined to commit to returning to Wimbledon next year but has vowed to keep working on the Tour for the foreseeable future.
The former world No.1 crashed out of the tournament on Friday after suffering a heartbreaking five-set loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas despite leading their clash by two sets to one. Murray has now failed to win back-to-back matches at two out of his past three appearances at the grasscourt major and last reached the second week in 2017 which was before he underwent career-saving hip resurfacing surgery.
Amid his latest disappointment, questions are starting to brew about if he will return to the tournament. This year has already seen Anett Kntaveit end her career at Wimbledon and Milos Raonic indicated that it is unlikely that he will return. As for Murray, he is on the fence.
“I don’t know,” he replied when asked if he intends to play in the 2024 tournament. “Motivation is a big thing. Continuing having early losses in tournaments like this doesn’t necessarily help with that.’
“It’s similar to last year. I had a long think about things, spoke to my family, and decided to keep on going.’
“I don’t plan to stop right now but this one (loss to Tsitsipas) will take a little while to get over. Hopefully, I will find the motivation again to keep training, keep pushing, try and keep getting better.”
Murray has played in the Wimbledon main draw 15 times in his career, winning the title in 2011 and 2014. Overall he has won 61 main draw matches at the tournament which is more than any other British man in the Open Era.
Against Tsitsipas, Murray had a golden opportunity to possibly close the match out in four sets but didn’t realize it at the time. Level at 4-4 in the fourth set with a 30-15 lead against his opponent’s serve, a return from him was called out which he didn’t challenge. However, a video replay showed it was in. Adding further to the Brit’s frustration, who did find out until speaking with the media.
“It was right underneath the umpire’s nose. They shouldn’t be missing that, to be honest. If they’re unsure, they should let the player know,” he said.
“It was such a sharp, sharp angle. It was very short. I assumed the umpire would have made the right call.’
“You can argue it’s a mistake on my part. Ultimately the umpire made a poor call that’s right in front of her.”
In light of this revelation, would Murray be in favour of implementing electronic line calling at the tournament which is already being used at other events?
“I probably prefer having the lines judges on the court. It feels nicer to me. The challenges, I think the crowd quite like it. I think for TV, they probably quite like it too.” He concluded.
