Former
world No. 1
Andy Murray hopes to compete in the Olympics once again before his
retirement, which seems increasingly imminent. Injuries have plagued the
British player in the last years of his career, but he has managed to maintain
a competitive pace.
However,
recently, he has not achieved good results and has only a 2-6 record in 2024,
placing him at world No. 61. The three-time Grand Slam champion will turn 37 in
May, and there are only two players older than him in the top 100: Gael Monfils
(37) and Stan Wawrinka (38). Additionally, Murray is just 7 days older than
Novak Djokovic.
This week,
Murray competed in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and secured a
victory over Denis Shapovalov (4-6, 7-6, 6-3), but he was decisively defeated
in the round of 16 against Ugo Humbert (2-6, 4-6). After another loss, he was
asked about his plans for a possible retirement.
"I get
asked about it after every single match that I play, every single tournament
that I play," said Murray. "I'm bored of the question, to be honest.
I'm not going to talk more about that between now and whenever the time comes
for me to stop.”
"But I
don't plan on playing much past this summer," the 2-times Wimbledon
champion said.
Murray eyes
Olympic comeback
Murray is
the only tennis player in the Open Era to achieve three medals in the Olympic
Games, winning gold in singles consecutively in 2012 London and 2016 Rio, along
with a silver in mixed doubles, also in 2012. Only
Rafael Nadal (2008 and 2016) and
Nicolas Massu (2004) have two gold medals, both with one in singles and one in
doubles.
Despite
retirement looming, there is still the Sunshine Double and the entire European
clay season for Murray to find better form before the
Olympic Games, where his
participation is not assured either: "Hopefully I can get the chance to
compete at another one," said Murray.
To qualify,
the British player must be within the top 56 of the ATP Ranking after the
French Open and be among the top four in his country, and currently, he is at
77th. However, the ranking list will likely shift considering there can be no
more than four participants per country.
A second
option would be to receive a wild card from the organization as a former gold
medalist and Grand Slam champion; the organization has two of them, and Murray
could probably secure one, even considering that Rafael Nadal will also seek
the opportunity if he doesn't qualify directly.
“There's no
right way of finishing your career and everyone is different so what might be
the right way for Federer might not be the right way for [Rafael] Nadal, might
not be the right way for [Novak] Djokovic."