Andy Murray has removed any traces of doubt that might have lingered about his tennis future, confirming that he will retire from the game after the Paris Olympics.
The 37-year-old, known for battling through injuries and surgeries to continue his legendary career, hopes to compete in singles and doubles in what will be his fifth Olympics for Britain.
“Arrived in Paris for my last ever tennis tournament,” the 2012 and 2016 Olympic medalist wrote on X. “Competing for Team GB has been by far the most memorable weeks of my career and I’m extremely proud to get to do it one final time!”
Arrived in Paris for my last ever tennis tournament @Olympics
Competing for 🇬🇧 have been by far the most memorable weeks of my career and I’m extremely proud to get do it one final time! pic.twitter.com/keqnpvSEE1
Murray has dealt with a number of career-threatening injuries, including hip resurfacing, over the past few years, only to bounce back each time. He played in his final Wimbledon this summer but could not play singles matches because he was recovering from back surgery. His final appearance on Centre Court was an emotional one in which he and brother Jamie lost a doubles match with family members looking on.
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Afterward, with Wimbledon champions looking on in tribute, he acknowledged how difficult a physical proposition tennis had become.
“I’m ready to finish playing. I don’t want that to be the case,” he told the crowd that day. “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. … 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.
“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 anymore for this reason. I like the traveling. I love the competition, practicing, trying to get better, all those things.
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“I know that it’s time now. Yeah, I’m ready for that.”
Murray, born in Glasgow, Scotland, began playing tennis when he was 3. He was a student, along with Jamie, at Dunblane Primary School when Thomas Hamilton shot 16 children and a teacher to death before shooting himself in 1996. Murray sheltered in a classroom and spoke little about it.
His parents broke up when he was 10, and his mother, Judy, was responsible for his early tennis tutelage. He moved to Spain as a teenager, becoming a pro just as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were beginning to dominate the game and joining them atop the sport along with Novak Djokovic. Although he did not achieve the success of those three, he played in Grand Slam singles finals nine times, becoming the first British man in 77 years to win Wimbledon in 2013 and winning it again in 2016, the year in which he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. He won the U.S. Open in 2012.
The Australian Open ANDY BOYS who were there for the longest haul (and the loudest funnest chants) over many years in Melbourne. Cheers guys. You were wonderful. ❤️ https://t.co/N9DIZ2Qaz3
— judy murray (@JudyMurray) July 23, 2024His success — and his gutsy battle with a chronic hip injury — endeared him to British fans hungry for a champion. Although he admitted he was at times surly in his early years, Murray grew increasingly more comfortable and relaxed in the spotlight, particularly after his marriage to Kim Sears and the births of his four children. He became a feminist, vocally supporting Serena Williams and others in their quest for equal prize money and being coached by French former No. 1 women’s player Amélie Mauresmo from 2014 to 2016. “Have I become a feminist?” he wrote in L’Equipe in 2015. “Well, if being a feminist is about fighting so that a woman is treated like a man then, yes, I suppose I have.”
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He continued to compete, hobbled at times. He announced his retirement in 2019 at the Australian Open, only to return after hip surgery. By the start of 2024, he was speaking generally of retirement over the summer, and an ankle injury in March at the Miami Open and a back injury during a Wimbledon warm-up injury helped crystallize his plans. He underwent surgery to remove a spinal cyst and returned. Now, the Olympics, where he is the only two-time singles men’s gold medalist, is his finish line.
“Sir Andy has lived and breathed the values of tennis throughout his long career, championing equality and helping to send the message that our sport is for everyone,” International Tennis Federation president David Haggerty said.
“Sir Andy’s love of tennis will see him continue to be involved in helping to grow and develop our sport globally.”
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