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Tom Hamilton, Senior Writer
Andy Murray has said he is still hopeful of playing at Wimbledon just days after having spinal surgery and has confirmed that if he is fit to play at the championships and at the Paris Olympics, then he is likely to retire from tennis.
Murray, 37, underwent a procedure to address a spinal cyst on Saturday, June 22 — surgery which usually comes with a six-week recovery period. With Wimbledon starting on July 1, Murray is still hopeful of making a miracle return for the championships, but admits there is a greater chance his participation may be in doubles alongside his brother Jamie.
The draw for Wimbledon takes place on Friday, and Murray — who has won the men’s singles title twice — said he will leave it until the last minute to make a call on whether he’s fit or not for the tournament.
“I feel that I deserve the opportunity to give it until the very last moment to make that decision,” Murray said on Thursday. “If I was to be playing on Monday, I may know on Sunday there’s no chance that I can play. But also if it is progressing… I’m on the court yesterday and I’m able to go on the court and move around more today and start to do more sort of tennis movements and stuff, I’m not necessarily going to know how that’s going to change over the next 48 to 72 hours.”
Doubles presents an alternative option for Murray, if he is unable to play singles, as it starts later in the Wimbledon schedule.
“The rate that I’m improving just now, if that was to continue then an extra 72 to 96 hours makes a huge difference. It’s complicated, and it’s made more complicated because I want to play at Wimbledon one more time,” Murray said.
“I want to have that opportunity to play the tournament and I know that some people might look at that and say: ‘Withdrawing from a tournament late at the last minute isn’t the right thing to do…’ But I feel like I deserve the opportunity to try to play there again. And I want to have that opportunity, so I’m going to give it as long as I can to see how well I recover.
“I’m going to wait until the last minute to see if I’m going to be able to and I’ve earned that right to do that. This is not clear cut where I am 100% going to be ready to play or there is a 0% chance that I can play. That is the situation. I would say it’s probably more likely that I’m not able to play singles right now. I’m also doing rehab 24/7 to try to give myself that opportunity to play there again.”
Murray also confirmed his retirement plans. Murray — who won the men’s singles titles at the 2012 US Open, 2013 Wimbledon and 2016 Wimbledon — said in February that he was not planning to play on much beyond this summer, and he hopes to play both at Wimbledon and at the Paris Olympics before stepping away from the sport.
“All of the discussions and conversations that I’ve had with my team are that I’m not going to play past this summer,” Murray said. “Obviously I’ve had the conversation with my family, and I have a family holiday booked the week after the Olympics.
“I’m not planning on going over to New York [for the US Open]. But then I also don’t want the last time that I played on a tennis court to be what happened at Queen’s either, and again I know that there’s more important things in the world than how I finish playing my last tennis match or where I finished playing my last tennis match.
“But because of what I put into the sport over the last however many years, I would at least like to go out playing a proper match where I’m at least competitive, not what happened at Queen’s.
“I can’t say for sure that if I wasn’t able to play at Wimbledon, and I didn’t recover in time to play at the Olympics that I wouldn’t consider trying to play another tournament somewhere. But if I’m able to play at Wimbledon and if I’m able to play at the Olympics, that’s most likely going to be it, yeah.”
Murray first knew of the cyst after the French Open. It was “pretty small and it grew significantly in size over the next two to three weeks,” he said. After winning in the first round of Queen’s, Murray was then forced to withdraw from the second round on June 19 after experiencing a loss of coordination, and shooting pains in his back and down his right leg. He then sought several opinions from surgeons, but they all came back telling him he needed a procedure.
“Although the surgery is not a major surgery, the problem was a serious problem because if the cyst continues to grow — obviously at Queen’s I basically lost the strength, coordination and everything in my right leg on my way to the court — you’re likely to have other complications as well,” Murray said.
“Obviously I couldn’t risk that or allow that to happen because I was struggling to walk properly because my nerves were getting really compressed.
“So I had to have the operation, but I was also given multiple different timelines for how long that would take. And also was made aware that if I decided to try to play Wimbledon that there’s some risk associated with that and it’s whether or not I’m willing to take on that risk.
“But also even with there potentially being a risk, I’ve obviously had the operation, the operation has gone really, really well and I’m recovering really well. I hit some balls yesterday [Wednesday]. I’m not in much pain at all, but the nature of nerve injuries is that they’re quite slow to recover.
“I wish that I was able to go into Wimbledon this year with a proper grass season under my belt and well prepared and ready to go. I certainly couldn’t be preparing for Wimbledon in a worse way. But maybe this is just how it was meant to happen for me. Getting to play with Jamie in the doubles is something that obviously I have never done before. That can be special as well.”