Andy Murray will make an 11th-hour decision about whether to compete at Wimbledon after undergoing surgery on his back last weekend, with the odds favouring a farewell appearance in the doubles alongside his brother, Jamie, before he ends his career at the Paris Olympics.
The 37-year-old’s retirement plans were thrown into disarray last week when a spinal injury forced him to pull out of his second-round match at Queen’s Club after just five games. Murray, who has won both Wimbledon and the Olympics twice, had hoped to bow out of the sport at one of those career-defining events, but is now racing to be fit after having an operation to remove a spinal cyst on Saturday.
The Scot, who has already returned to training, will wait as long as possible before making a call about his participation in the singles at the All England Club, where he led Stefanos Tsitsipas overnight in a two-day, five-set thriller last year. He is aware that he may take some flak over his decision to remain in the draw, but feels he has earned the opportunity to take a final shot at an event where he ended Britain’s 77-year wait for a British men’s singles champion in 2013.
“The rate that I’m improving just now, if that was to continue, then an extra 72 to 96 hours makes a huge difference,” said Murray. “It’s complicated, and it’s made more complicated because I want to play at Wimbledon one more time.
“I want to have that opportunity to play the tournament and I know that some people might look at that and say withdrawing from a tournament late, at the last minute or something like that, isn’t the right thing to do, even though it happens every single week on the tour.
“Maybe it’s my ego getting in the way, but I feel that I deserve the opportunity to give it until the very last moment to make that decision.
“The operation has gone really, really well and I’m recovering really well. I hit some balls yesterday. I’m not in much pain at all, but the nature of nerve injuries is that they’re quite slow to recover.
“I don’t know exactly how long it’s going to take for the nerve to get to a stage where I’m able to compete or play, whether that’s three days or whether it’s three weeks or five weeks. It’s impossible to say.”
With that in mind, Murray has not ruled out playing his final match elsewhere if necessary. He has booked a family holiday for the week after the Olympics, which run from 27 July to 4 August, and insists he will not travel to New York for the US Open. Nonetheless, Murray does not want his hobbling retirement at Queen’s to mark his final moment in the sport.
“I know that there’s more important things in the world than where I play my last tennis match,” said Murray. “But because of what I put into the sport over the last however many years, I would at least like to go out playing a proper match where I’m at least competitive, not what happened at Queen’s.
“I can’t say for sure that if I wasn’t able to play at Wimbledon, and I didn’t recover in time to play at the Olympics, that I wouldn’t consider trying to play another tournament somewhere. But if I’m able to play at Wimbledon and if I’m able to play at the Olympics, that’s most likely going to be it.”
For the moment, Murray’s focus is on Wimbledon, where an emotional swansong in the men’s doubles appears a more realistic prospect than a singles farewell. If he fails to make the starting line, it will not be for want of effort.
“I’m doing rehab 24/7 to try to give myself that opportunity to play there again,” said Murray, who could partner his brother for the first time at the tournament.
“I would say it’s probably more likely that I’m not able to play singles right now. I spoke to my brother a couple of days ago in terms of the doubles to see if he wants to find someone else to play with, and I was obviously absolutely fine with that. But he also wants the opportunity to try to play.
“We’ll see how the next few days go. I certainly couldn’t be preparing for Wimbledon in a worse way. But maybe this is just how it was meant to happen for me.”