(Brisbane) British tennis player Andy Murray, 36, has suggested that 2024 could be his last on the circuit after seeing his preparation troubled by injuries and health problems.
The player, who won the Wimbledon tournament twice (2013, 2016), begins his season with the ATP 250 tournament in Brisbane to prepare for the Australian Open (January 15-28).
He is currently 42e world player after a difficult end to the season which saw him win only one match in the last four tournaments he played. He had previously considered retiring from playing after hip surgery in 2018.
The Scot has indicated he may not play beyond 2024 if the upcoming season proves as frustrating as the last.
“If I found myself in a situation like the one I find myself in at the end of this year, I probably wouldn’t continue,” the former world No.1 (2016) told the BBC. “But if I feel good physically and my results are good and I play well and it’s fun, I might continue playing,” he continued.
“We’ll see how this year goes, how I hold up physically. If it goes well, I would like to continue, but if not, if I don’t have fun, it could be the last year, yes,” he said.
Murray, who is the same age as Novak Djokovic, is one of the rare players to have disrupted the almost absolute domination that Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and the Serbian have exercised over world tennis.
In addition to his two triumphs at Wimbledon, he also won the United States Open in 2012. And won Olympic gold on the grass at Wimbledon in 2012 and then in Rio in 2016.
“When you’ve played well at the highest level, it’s not easy to go through periods where you lose in the first rounds and matches you probably should have won,” observed Andy Murray. “But at the same time, if two years ago, someone had told me that I would still be in the top 40 in the world after having my hip problems, I would have been very happy. »
Murray will face Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, seeded No.2 in the tournament, on Monday in the first round in Brisbane.