Murray withdraws from Wimbledon because he is not ready
Two-time champion Andy Murray has confirmed his withdrawal from this year’s men’s singles at Wimbledon, citing his lack of readiness for best-of-five-set matches after almost a year out with injury.
Murray had been set to make his grand slam return at SW19 next week, having recently returned from hip surgery with encouraging appearances at Queen’s Club and Eastbourne.
However, in a post from his official Facebook account on Sunday, the former world number one acknowledged he was not yet fit enough to feature.
“Hey everyone. It is with a heavy heart that I’m announcing that I’ll be withdrawing from Wimbledon this year,” wrote Murray.
“I’ve made significant progress in practice and matches over the last 10 days, but after lengthy discussions with my team, we’ve decided that playing best-of-five-set matches might be a bit too soon in the recovery process. We did everything we could to try to be ready in time.
“I will start practising on the hard courts from tomorrow [Monday] and continuing with my rehab and recovery and I’m looking forward to the US hard-court season.
“Thanks for all the messages of support and I’m excited to finally be back playing after so long out.”
Really sorry to hear the news, @andy_murray .
From everyone at the All England Club, we wish you all the best with your journey back from injury. #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/HkRkV8AdK8
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 1, 2018
Lucky loser Jason Jung will take Murray’s place in the draw and face Benoit Paire in round one.
Murray’s last grand slam appearance came at Wimbledon 12 months ago when he defied his long-standing hip problem to reach the quarter-finals before losing to Sam Querrey.
He subsequently underwent surgery in January, before finally returning to competitive action last month.
