WIMBLEDON, England — Two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray nonetheless had not determined as of Thursday whether or not he’ll have the ability to compete on the grass-court Grand Slam event that begins subsequent week and he’s likelier to enter doubles than singles if he can play in any respect after current surgical procedure to take away a cyst on his spinal wire.
“Possibly it’s my ego getting in the best way, however I really feel that I deserve the chance to present it till the final second to make that call,” mentioned the 37-year-old Murray, who plans to retire within the coming months. “It’s sophisticated, and it’s made extra sophisticated as a result of I need to play at Wimbledon yet one more time … so I’m going to present it so long as I can to see how effectively I get well.”
The All England Membership introduced Thursday evening that Murray and his older brother, Jamie, have been granted a wild-card entry for males’s doubles.
Wimbledon begins Monday. The draw to find out the singles brackets is Friday.
“It has been talked about to me: ‘Are you going to withdraw earlier than the draw at 10 a.m. on Friday?’ And I’m like, ‘Effectively, no, I’m not. I’m going to attend till the final minute,” Murray mentioned. “This isn’t clear-cut, the place I’m 100% going to be able to play or there’s a 0% likelihood that I can play. That’s the scenario. I’d say it’s in all probability extra probably that I’m not in a position to play singles proper now.”
Murray had been intending to complete his profession by enjoying at Wimbledon after which the Paris Olympics, the place the tennis competitors at Roland Garros begins July 27. However then got here the most recent in a sequence of well being points in 2024: He needed to cease enjoying in the course of the first set of a match final week on the Queen’s Membership grass-court event in London due to ache and bother strolling on account of nerve injury brought on by the cyst, then had an operation on Saturday.
He returned to hitting tennis balls on Wednesday.
Murray needs the possibility to present a correct on-court goodbye.
“Due to what I put into the game over the past nonetheless a few years, I’d a minimum of prefer to exit enjoying a correct match the place I’m a minimum of aggressive — not what occurred at Queen’s. So I can’t say for positive that if I wasn’t in a position to play at Wimbledon, and I didn’t get well in time to play on the Olympics, that I wouldn’t think about attempting to play one other event someplace,” he mentioned Thursday. “But when I’m in a position to play at Wimbledon and if I’m in a position to play on the Olympics, that’s most definitely going to be it.”
And as of now, he doesn’t plan to enter the U.S. Open, which begins in late August.
“I’m not going to play previous this summer time,” he mentioned.
The Scot owns a complete of three main championships: He received the U.S. Open in 2012, and Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016. His 2013 title made him the primary British man to win the singles trophy on the All England Membership in 77 years.
He is also the one participant with two consecutive tennis gold medals in singles on the Olympics. He received at London in 2012 — when the game’s Summer time Video games matches have been held on the All England Membership — and at Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
Murray underwent a pair of hip operations in 2018 and 2019. Whereas he thought he would wish to retire after the second surgical procedure, through which he obtained a steel hip implant, Murray finally returned to motion.
He has since been hampered by numerous accidents, together with tearing ligaments in his left ankle on the Miami Open in March. Murray misplaced within the first spherical of the French Open in Might.
“I actually couldn’t be getting ready for Wimbledon in a worse means,” he mentioned Thursday. “However possibly that is simply the way it was meant to occur for me.”
