It will not be this time that Andy Murray will fight for an Olympic medal in men’s tennis singles. In the moments before the Briton’s debut at Tokyo 2020, he announced that he will not participate in the category this year. The reasons are muscle problems, which have been the tennis player’s company for some time. Murray would enter the court this Sunday against the Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime, number 15 in the world ranking. Despite the withdrawal, the two-time Olympic champion will continue to Japan for the doubles dispute.
At 34, Murray competes in his fourth edition of the Olympic Games. Still, it has already arrived in Tokyo 2020 with credentials different from previous editions. After dealing with physical problems in recent years, including hip surgery in 2019, the 104th tennis player in the world rankings still tried to retrace his path to the top of the podium in the world’s biggest sports competition. However, last week, it was recommended to avoid the accumulation of games and focus on just one of the matches in the Japanese capital.
– I am very disappointed to have to give up, but the medical team advised me not to participate in both tournaments. So I made the difficult decision to withdraw from the singles competition and focus on doubles with Joe Salisbury – Murray said.
With the decision, Murray should focus his efforts on the doubles, where he already debuted with a victory this week against the French Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hughes Herbert. With his absence from the singles tournament, the Brit was replaced by the Australian Max Purcell.