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Andy Murray has withdrawn from next week’s Atlanta Open. The former world No 1 was set to play the ATP 250 before going on to Washington but his next tournament will now be the ATP 500 in the US capital as he tries not to overplay ahead of the US Open, after getting injured in a Wimbledon warm-up tournament.
Murray took a last-minute wildcard into last week’s grass tournament in Newport following his early exit at Wimbledon. The 35-year-old started the grass season strong with a semi-final appearance in the Surbiton Challenger and a run to the final in Stuttgart but injured himself during that championship match against Matteo Berrettini, losing in three sets.
The abdominal issue derailed his Wimbledon preparations as he was forced to stop practising serves and pulled out of the ATP 500 at the Queen’s Club before he failed to make it out of the second round at the All England Club. And the three-time Grand Slam champion looks to be avoiding making the same mistake ahead of the US Open by cutting down his schedule.
Express Sport understands that it was unlikely Murray would play all three of the tournaments across Newport, Atlanta and Washington – and it’s next week’s ATP 250 that he has opted to skip before returning to the 500-point Citi Open the following week.
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Speaking after his defeat at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, the 46-time title winner admitted the grass-court season had ended up being something of a rollercoaster following his abdominal injury. “The grass-court season as a whole there were some good moments, but also some tough ones,” he explained.
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“Today’s match and the loss at Wimbledon were disappointing and and frustrating for me, but then I also had my best wins in a while in Stuttgart. So a bit up and down, but a little bit of progress overall and I’ll try and keep that going through the hard-court summer.” Murray has not played singles in Washington since 2018, where he famously broke down sobbing on his bench after defeating Marius Copil at 3am in a three-set thriller.
In a documentary released a year later about his hip resurfacing surgery, the former world No 1 revealed that the hard-fought victory had actually made him consider retiring, as he withdrew from his next round the following day. “I feel like this is the end for me. I really want to keep going, but my body is telling me no,” he told the camera.
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