Andy Murray has had enough of the retirement talk with the former world No 1 saying “I don’t really understand why I keep getting asked” when he will hang up his racket for good.
Tired of speculation over his tennis playing future, Murray confirmed just under a fortnight ago that “I’m likely not gonna play past the summer”. It remains to be seen when exactly he plans to retire as he admitted that he would like to play at the 2024 Paris Olympics while there is speculation he could even compete at the US Open.
He also vowed to give the tennis playing community notice ahead of his final tournament, but stated “I’m not gonna talk about that more between now and whenever the time comes for me to stop”.
Yet the retirement questions continue to come his way and, following his exit from the Indian Wells Open, the three-time Grand Slam winner expressed his frustration.
“I feel like no one is listening to me. I mean, yeah, I’m planning on finishing in the summer,” he said.
“I don’t know what more I can – yeah, I don’t know what more I’m supposed to say. I’ve been getting asked about it for, yeah, 18 months or so, and it’s obviously something I have thought about, but, you know, I hadn’t made a decision on.
“Once I have made the decision, I have expressed that, and no one is listening to it. So I don’t really understand why I keep getting asked, to be honest (smiling).”
Murray’s latest journey was ended by Andrey Rublev in the second round of the ATP Masters 1000 event as he went down 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 against the world No 5.
The Scot, who has won only two matches in 2024, finds himself at No 61 in the Live Rankings, but he is likely to slip further down after his latest defeat.
He had four set points in at 4-5 in the opening set and lamented his inability to capitalise on Rublev’s second serves.
“I did pretty well in the first set and probably, you know, had maybe done enough to maybe nick it at the end there. I didn’t play a great tie-break,” he said.
“You know, he was very good behind his first serve. And his forehand, obviously when he had time, is one of the best in the game. Certainly not easy to defend against that sort of power.
“But it was putting the ball in difficult positions, making it hard for him. I just was disappointed I didn’t connect on enough second-serve returns. I think that was really the key for me anyway in the first set. If I connected on a few more second-serve returns when he was under pressure and found his backhand side, you know, I probably could have got the set. But I didn’t do that.
“And then second set was obviously had a couple of chances in his first two service games. I didn’t get them. Obviously I got broken from 40-Love up and played a poor game at 4-1. But yeah, no more than that.”
