PARIS – It’s true, it’s real. It’s real now. The tennis player Andy Murray doesn’t exist anymore. He is now officially an ex tennis player. His professional career was over before nightfall in humid Paris, in a place that knew no special tributes, except for the energy given to him by his loyal fans who did not stop shouting “c’mon Andy”.
In the Olympic Games there are no farewell ceremonies as there are many in the tour when a tennis player leaves the professional life forever.
Murray surely didn’t want any more farewell rituals, though. He had in Melbourne in 2019, when the prognoses regarding his hip were lapidary. “I know obviously what happened in Australia a few years ago was a bit awkward,” he said at Wimbledon this year. That time, the organization prepared a video with tennis figures recognizing his legacy. Operated and after playing a few more years, at Wimbledon 2024 came his most symbolic farewell with an All England Club full of legends.
In Paris 2024 he wanted it to be the real end. The Scot is one of the tennis players who feels the strongest connection with the Olympics. He made his debut in Beijing without glory, but it was at the London Olympics that he experienced one of the most special moments of his career. He had lost painfully to Federer at Wimbledon 2012 and two months later he stood on top of the podium in front of her home crowd. In Rio de Janeiro he became the only person to successfully defend the title.
Thank you, Sir Andy Murray 🇬🇧
The tennis legend leaves the court for the final time 😢#Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/tabhTyfmIT
— Eurosport (@eurosport) August 1, 2024
Without paraphernalia, Murray took a moment to stand in the middle of the Suzanne Lenglen, raise his arms and get emotional after the defeat suffered along with Daniel Evans by 6-2 and 6-4 against Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul. Murray thus buried a stupendous career in which in addition to achieving the Olympic joys, he reached the world number one, won three Grand Slams, and played eight other majors finals. All his time with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic as main rivals.
Murray told the author of this article three years ago under the powerful sun of Tokyo 2020 (played on ’21) when most of the tennis players did not want to play the Games because of the pandemic restrictions, that every tennis player should try what this competition is like: “If you are not sure, come and experience it once. If you don’t like it, that’s fine, you don’t have to come back. I love it and I enjoy it very much. Every tennis player should try it.”
“It felt good,” Murray said after retirement. “I knew the last few months that the moment would come. Obviously, I was excited because it’s the last time I’m going to play a competitive match. But now I’m really happy. I’m happy with how it ended.”
“I’m glad I was able to participate in the Olympics and finish on my own terms, because sometimes, in the last few years, that wasn’t a certainty. And even a few months ago, I was told when I first went to have my scan of my back and the issue that I had with it, I was told that I wouldn’t be playing at the Olympics and I wouldn’t be playing at Wimbledon.
So now what? “Andy is going to play a lot of golf,” Evans said.
“All I think about is that I want to be a father. I want to be at home. That’s what I want, to have time for my kids,” said Andy Murray, now an ex tennis player.
