Beaten by Tsitsipas, Andy Murray doubts he will appear at Wimbledon next year

– Andy Murray has expressed doubts he will return to Wimbledon next year after suffering a painful second-round loss to world number five Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The match finished 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (2/7), 4-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 after four hours and 40 minutes of grueling play.

The defeat means that Murray, who is 36 years old, has not reached the second week of a Grand Slam since reaching the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 2017.

This naturally raises questions about his long-term future in the world of tennis, even though he has been trying hard to get his career back on track after undergoing two hip surgeries.

“I don’t know,” Murray said when asked if he would return to the All England Club next year, as reported by AFPSaturday (8/7/2023).

Murray admits the defeat has affected his morale. “Motivation is obviously the important thing. Constantly losing early in tournaments like this doesn’t help.”

He also admitted that last year’s second-round loss at Wimbledon to John Isner had taken a toll on his morale.

“I have thought about things for a long time, discussed with my family and decided to move on,” said Murray.

“I don’t plan to stop now. However, this will take quite a while to resolve.”

“I hope I can find the motivation again to keep training, keep fighting, trying and keep improving.”

Tsitsipas recorded 90 hits winner to beat Murray. He will face Serbian tennis player, Laslo Djere, for a place in the round of 16.

Tsitsipas also credited the influence of Murray as well as the other top three Grand Slam players, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

“I was moved when he won his first Wimbledon title,” Tsitsipas said of Murray’s first Wimbledon title in 2013 which was followed three years later.

“I admire him, Roger, Novak and Rafa – these four people have shaped the world of tennis and they are the reason why I am the tennis player I am today.”

Murray was in the lead when the match was stopped on Thursday (6/7) because the night time at Wimbledon had reached 23.00.

The delay comes at the right time for the former world number one. She fell and appeared to hurt her groin, which left her screaming in pain on serve in the third set.

However, the tennis player who is currently ranked 40th in the world managed to record one break served in the first three sets and fought back to continue the match.

The tension of the second round of matches continued on Friday (7/7) as it was tie-break another won by Tsitsipas.

With a 12 year age gap, Tsitsipas suddenly found great form and set records break his first of the match to take a 2-1 lead in the decider, then he snatched victory on the third match point.

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