Andy Murray: Former world No. 1 says he is only one more 'big injury' away from retirement
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Updated 20/12/2022 at 19:10 GMT
Andy Murray has made a remarkable recovery from two massive hip surgeries that would have seen most people retire, but despite his fitness struggles the 35-year-old former world No. 1 has been able to return to life on court for the last few years. However the Scot acknowledged that one more serious injury would cause him to step away from tennis for good.
Murray - 'I do not deserve' Federer-style farewell as he dismisses own retirement thoughts
Andy Murray has said that he is only one more “big injury” from retiring from tennis.
The 35-year-old has three Grand Slams to his name, and believes that he is fitter than he has been for years after overcoming two rounds of major hip surgery in 2018 and 2019.
No tennis player has ever returned to the sport after the kind of surgery that Murray underwent, and the former world No. 1 has suffered a string of niggling injuries that have forced him to miss much of the last four years.
Murray has been training with coach Ivan Lendl in Florida and now believes he is fit enough to compete, but he is waiting to see results on court before deciding for how much longer to continue. Another of the Big Four, Roger Federer, retired earlier this year, and fellow veteran Rafael Nadal has hinted that he will curtail his involvement on the tour further still.
"If my body is in good shape and I'm still able to compete consistently, I'll keep playing," Murray said.
"But I can't look so far in advance with the age I'm at and with the issues I've had. If I was to have a big injury, I probably wouldn't try to come back from that."
Murray is now ranked inside the top 50, albeit at No. 49 after winning 26 from 45 singles matches, and reached to tour finals, and got to the third round of the 2022 US Open.
Murray will be part of the Scotland squad that faces England in Aberdeen for the upcoming Battle of the Brits. He will play Jack Draper on Wednesday and Dan Evans on Thursday in singles.
Then he will face Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski alongside his brother Jamie Murray.
After that, he is aiming to impress at the Australian Open next month.
"I spent three weeks in Florida, getting my body right and getting some work done on my game and it went really well," he added.
"I'm certainly in better shape than I was. A lot of work was done in the gym, trying to build up my endurance and my stamina a bit and I'm hoping that's going to help me next year.
"I wasn't happy with how last season went - certainly the last six months or so from a physical perspective - but my ranking still went from 125 to 50 in a year. I'm hoping that this year, with the work I've done, things will continue to improve and I'll still be motivated to get out there and compete."
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