Aurélie Sacchelli, Media365, published on Thursday June 27, 2024 at 1:11 p.m.
Having undergone back surgery last Saturday, Andy Murray began a race against time to participate one last time at Wimbledon. The Scot is not at all certain of succeeding in his bet, but his name will certainly appear in the table during the draw on Friday.
Friday, at 10:00 London time, the Wimbledon men’s draw will take place. And Andy Murray’s name will certainly be there. Even though the Scottish player underwent back surgery last Saturday to remove a cyst on his spine (already present at Roland Garros, but which grew during Queen’s, making the operation inevitable), the 37-year-old player (world number 115) will give his all to take part in his last Wimbledon. This is what he confided to Guardian this Thursday: “Given the rate at which I’m improving right now, 72 to 96 more hours would make a huge difference. I want the opportunity to play this tournament and I know some people might look at this and say that pulling out of a tournament at the last minute is not the right thing to do, even though it happens every week on the circuit. The Queen’s winner (Tommy Paul, editor’s note) withdrew from Eastbourne when the draw was made and he was obviously in great shape… But I think I deserve the opportunity to try to play again there. And I want to have this opportunity, so I’m going to wait as long as possible to see if I recover well.” In the event of a last-minute withdrawal, a player eliminated in the last round of qualifying will replace him in the table.
Objective Wimbledon and Paris
While he confided in February that he would stop his career “probably after the summer”, Andy Murray sees the end getting closer. At best, he still has Wimbledon and the Olympic Games to play, because he does not plan to play the US Open. But the former world No. 1 wants to finish with dignity. “I know there are more important things in the world than how and where I finish my last tennis match. But considering what I have invested in the sport over the past few years, I would like to at least play a match worthy of the name, where I would at least be competitive, unlike what happened at Queen’s. If I can play Wimbledon and if I can play in the Olympics, that will most likely be it. I would have liked to have been able to approach Wimbledon this year with a real grass court season under my belt, but I ended up preparing for the tournament in the worst possible way.”
