By Marc McGowan
British tennis legend Andy Murray is set to decide on Monday evening (London time) whether he will make one last singles appearance at his beloved Wimbledon.
The former world No.1 and dual Wimbledon champion intends to play at the Olympic Games in Paris, but is desperately racing the clock to face Czech Tomas Machac on the All England Club’s centre court on Tuesday.
Andy Murray is set to make his call on whether he will play at Wimbledon this year.Credit: Getty Images
His other chance to bid farewell will come in the doubles alongside his brother Jamie.
Murray, who said he had no plans to extend his historic career beyond this year, underwent surgery barely a week ago to remove a spinal cyst that was “squashing” his nerves and had left him without full feeling in his right leg.
He described the sensation as like when you “sleep on your arm funny” and wake up with a “dead arm”, but added that he felt better every day.
That operation followed Murray retiring only five games into his second-round match with Australian Jordan Thompson at Queen’s Club last week, a scenario he does not want to repeat.
“[I have] been trying to do everything that I can to try and get ready to start the tournament here. I don’t know if that’s going to be enough,” Murray said on Sunday afternoon.
“I’ve been practising for the last few days. I played a set today. It went pretty well, but I still don’t have 100 per cent sort of feeling and sensation in my leg yet. It’s getting better every single day.
“Like I said a few days ago, I want to give it every single chance that I can to get there.
“I’m going to play another set again tomorrow [and] I’m doing some physical testing in the morning to see sort of how far off I am from a physical perspective. Then, I will probably make a decision tomorrow evening after that.”
Murray ended Great Britain’s 77-year wait for a men’s Wimbledon singles champion in 2013.Credit: Getty Images
Murray has won only six of his 18 matches this year, but will end his career as a key part of tennis’ golden generation alongside fellow “Big Four” members Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
His 2013 Wimbledon triumph ended Great Britain’s 77-year wait for a successor in the men’s draw to 1936 champion Fred Perry. Perry already has a prominent statue at the AELTC, and American great John McEnroe wants one to be erected in Murray’s honour as well.
The 37-year-old is a triple grand slam winner, including a second Wimbledon win in 2016 and his breakthrough 2012 US Open success, and played in 11 major finals overall.
He is also the sole player, man or woman, to claim two Olympic gold medals in singles.
Murray finished runner-up at the Australian Open five times and infamously received a farewell video at Melbourne Park five years ago after his words were misconstrued from a pre-tournament media conference, where he hinted his struggles with a hip injury might end his career.
That memory came up again on Sunday after he was asked how he wanted Wimbledon to handle his goodbye.
Murray is a five-time Australian Open runner-up.Credit: AFP
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know exactly what,” Murray said. “I don’t know what the right thing is. I know, obviously, what happened in Australia a few years ago was a bit awkward.”
Murray is willing to risk reopening the small wound on his back, which still has stitches in it, to get one last shot at playing on Wimbledon’s grass. He said there was no lingering pain in the area and all that was holding him back at this point was his right leg.
“My spine is strong and stable. The inflammation is coming down every single day. There’s been minimal disruption to the muscles and everything,” Murray said.
“If I was worried about doing more damage to my spine or something like that, yeah, that would be very different. But I’m OK with a few stitches coming loose or whatever. What am I looking to get from it? Well, the opportunity to play here again for the last time – that’s kind of it. This is a place that’s, obviously, been really good to me over the years.
“I guess the last few years you’ve had, I don’t know, like Serena [Williams] finished playing, Roger finished playing, and Rafa obviously has spoken a lot recently about the struggles he’s gone through. Everyone has their idea of how they want to finish their career, [and] how they would want it to go.”