LONDON — Andy Murray, one of the last decade’s most successful male tennis players, has pulled out of the singles tournament at what is almost certain to be his last Wimbledon, his team confirmed Tuesday.
The Scottish star, 37, who has won the Wimbledon singles title twice and the U.S Open once, has been battling to be fit to play at the All England Club for weeks.
He is recovering from surgery to remove a spinal cyst 10 days ago, which left him visibly in pain and unable to move his right leg at Queens Club in London last month, a traditional warm-up tournament for Wimbledon.
Although he plans to play in in the men’s doubles alongside his brother, Jamie, it appears Murray will not appear again alone on Centre Court. He had been due to face Czech player Tomas Machac in the singles at 1:30 p.m. (8:30 a.m. ET) on Tuesday.
“Unfortunately, despite working incredibly hard on his recovery since his operation just over a week ago, Andy has taken the very difficult decision not to play the singles this year,” his team said in a statement reported by Sky News.
“As you can imagine, he is extremely disappointed but has confirmed that he will be playing in the doubles with Jamie and looks forward to competing at Wimbledon for the last time.”
Sky News is owned by Comcast, the parent company of NBC News.
Wishing him well in a post on X, Wimbledon said it was “sorry to hear you won’t be playing singles this year.”
Murray also still hopes to appear at the Paris Olympics, after which he has said he will retire from the sport.
The news caps a glittering career on the ATP singles tour, which placed Murray at number 1 in the world for 41 weeks. He was in the top 10 male players in the world for almost 10 years, from July 2008 to October 2017.
For a time, the media included Murray in the so-called « Big Four » group of players, along with Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
He became the first male British singles champion since Fred Perry in 1936, becoming one of the most lauded British sports stars in the process.
Murray has a long history with multiple injuries and declared in 2017 that it was unlikely he would compete in a professional tournament again, after he withdrew from the U.S. Open due to a recurring hip injury.
