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Andy Murray seemed to indicate he may just leave the game of tennis without formally announcing a retirement. The 35-year-old claimed he would not want to add further public pressure to his final tournaments and would rather just stop playing and exit the game minus a farewell tour.
Following a loss to Cameron Norrie in the battle of the Brits in Cincinnati yesterday, the three-time Grand Slam champion told Europsort: “When I had the injury problems a few years ago and didn’t know whether I was going to be able to play, I maybe always envisaged finishing my career in the UK or whatever. There is part of it I think when you announce that you’re retiring that I would imagine psychologically it’s quite difficult, as well.
“There is a lot of pressure then, I think because you want to perform and because it’s the last couple of tournaments. Just the whole situation puts a lot of stress on the performance. So I don’t know whether I would announce something or whether I would just stop and that would be it. I don’t know.”
Murray has been suffering from cramp in recent matches and it flared up again during his 6-3, 3-6, 4-6 loss to Norrie. It is something the former world number one has not previously experienced to this degree and is slightly concerned as he turns his attention to the US Open.
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“I think pretty much every tennis player in their career has cramped usually in these sorts of conditions that we have had [in Cincinnati],” he added. “But the consistency of it for me is a big concern. It’s not something that I have really experienced. I have experienced cramping but not consistently over a number of tournaments.
“It’s not easy to play when it gets bad like it was at the end. I feel like it had an impact on the end of the match. I’m not saying whether I would for sure win the match or not, but it certainly affected the way that I played.”
Earlier in the week, Murray shared his thoughts on Serena Williams’ upcoming retirement after the 23-time Grand Slam champion revealed that the “countdown” to the end of her career was on. The Brit admitted the announcement came as a surprise despite being “inevitable”, with the US Open expected to be her final tournament.
He added: “It just always feels like a bit of a shock always when you see it because these are people, and Serena’s certainly one of them, that they don’t seem human sometimes and you think god they can just go on and on.”
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