Andy Murray casts doubt over his future after desperate Wimbledon exit

Kevin Palmer
End of the road for Andy Murray at Wimbledon?
Has Andy Murray played his last match at Wimbledon?

Ten years to the day after his greatest moment on Wimbledon’s Centre Court, Andy Murray must surely have got the message that the game is up.

Losing 7-6, 6-7, 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, to the fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas was hardly a disgrace, but the manner of Murray’s exit on a sweltering hot Friday in south-west London must cast a huge cloud over what comes next.

After spending the last few weeks preparing for a final crack at Wimbledon glory by playing lower-grade events and focusing all his efforts on a deep run at the Grand Slam event he cherishes more than any other, Murray’s body language on Centre Court was more alarming than the final scoreline.

After a thrilling performance under the roof in front of a raucous crowd on Thursday evening, Murray emerged with a one-set advantage against and with all the aces apparently in his hands.

With that in mind, it was hard to fathom how he reemerged in search of the one set he needed appearing to be so flat.

At no point did he engage the Centre Court fans to raise their voice or show the kind of energy he needed to get over the finishing line, so it was no surprise that Tsitsipas seized on the moment to fight his way back into the match.

Murray’s passive performance on court in part two of the match on Friday gave his opponent all the incentive he needed to push on for victory and when he was struggling in the fifth set, his failure to draw on the home fans was as baffling as it was self-defeating.

Had Murray raised his arms and asked for their backing, Tsitsipas may well have felt the weight of pressure on his shoulders and buckled as he tried to close the match out.

Instead, he was offered a serene path into the third round, with the chilling sense of inevitability around Murray’s defeat will inevitably fuel speculation that his time at the top of the game is over.

“The difference is the age,” declared tennis great John McEnroe on the BBC. “Tsitsipas is 12 years younger and he is really fit. That really helped him because he looked pretty fresh in that fifth set.”

When asked whether he will be back at Wimbledon next year, Murray paused and admitted there is a doubt if he has played his last game on Centre Court.

“I don’t know,” he admitted as he looked at his future. “Motivation is obviously a big thing. Continuing to have early losses in tournaments like this don’t necessarily help with that. Yeah, it’s similar to I guess last year.

“I had a long think about things, spoke to my family and decided to keep on going. I don’t plan to stop right now. But, yeah, this one will take a while to get over.”

Now Murray will have a few weeks to reflect on what comes next and whether he still believes he still has the fight and drive required to shine at the top of one of the most demanding sports of them all.

If Murray was able to maintain the momentum he carried as he won the third set against Tsitsipas in the indoor match on Thursday, he may well have been hosting a very different press briefing an hour or so later.

Once the match was moved to an outdoor setting, an uninspired Murray looked every inch the 36-year-old veteran in the final throws of a great career.

The greatest British sportsman of the modern era will now have to ponder whether he wants to keep knocking on a door that refuses to open for him.

Sooner or later, he will come up with the answer that now seems obvious to those of us looking in on his agony.

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