LONDON – It couldn’t be more emotional. With the pain of his soul, Andy Murray put an end to his tennis career. One again. For a final time.
Without wanting to let go of what he loves and needs most, the Scottish assumed that he can no longer live with what being a professional tennis player implies at 37 years of age: “I’m ready to finish”.
It is anecdotal that after his defeat in the men’s doubles with his brother Jamie he still has to play the mixed doubles with Emma Raducanu this Saturday. It is also secondary that his final farewell will be in Paris during the Olympic Games.
Murray said goodbye to Wimbledon. Wimbledon said goodby to Andy Murray. And thus the most important part of the best tennis player of the last 20 years after the Big 3 was filed in memory.
The All England Club was the place where he tasted the greatest number of feelings. From the deep frustration at not being able to conquer Wimbledon and thus end the British sorrows since Fred Perry’s title in 1936, to the eternal glory achieved. Murray was for a considerable time the absolute owner of a lot of pressure.
“It was very stressful, it wasn’t easy. Obviously Novak took the day off,” Murray told former tennis player and presenter Sue Baker during the post-match interview about that the end of that 77-year long wait for British tennis. Full of emotion, remembrance and British humor.
When Novak Djokovic left his backhand at the net on Sunday, July 7, 2013, Murray experienced the euphoria, joy and satisfaction of dominating on Centre Court, but more precious has to have been the relief of shedding a heavy backpack.
“With Andy Murray it was always going to end this way. A sports reconstruction of the Mel Gibson film, The Passion of the Christ. So much suffering, so much pain (…) Agony, always agony. And yet somehow triumphant, even in defeat,” wrote journalist Martin Samuel in The Times.
What Murray lost was having to accept that his marathon was already run.
“I know what happened in Melbourne a few years back was a bit awkward,” said the former world number one before the start of Wimbledon 2024.
In 2019 he “retired” from tennis, the organization of the Australian Open prepared a tribute for him and his colleagues dismissed him from the circuit. He returned with metal hip and the story is known.
Murray was always desperate to touch a racquet again every time he suffered an injury. But he has now understood that this irrepressible desire has no basis.
“It’s different now,” he admitted. And he strolled around the balconies of the All England Club to greet people as a former tennis player.
