Murray withdraws from Wimbledon

Two-time champion Andy Murray withdrew from Wimbledon with a “heavy heart” after saying his right hip was still not ready for the demands of a Grand Slam.

The 31-year-old Scot made a comeback last month at Queen’s Club following almost a year out with the injury that required surgery in Australia in January.

While he lost his opening comeback match against Australia’s Nick Kyrgios at Queen’s Club, he beat Stan Wawrinka at Eastbourne last week before losing to new British No.1 Kyle Edmund.

He said following the loss to Kyrgios at Queen’s that he would not rule out playing at Eastbourne yet still withdrawing from Wimbledon.

During a news conference on Saturday the former world No.1 sounded hopeful about his chances of being ready to face Frenchman Benoit Paire in the first round on Tuesday.

But he announced he was pulling out 24 hours later having consulted his team.

“It is with a heavy heart that I’m announcing that I’ll be withdrawing from Wimbledon this year,” he said on Facebook on Sunday.

“I’ve made significant progress in practice and in matches over the last 10 days, but after lengthy discussions with my team we’ve decided that playing best-of-five-set matches might be a bit too soon in the recovery process.

“We did everything we could to try and be ready in time.”

On a more positive note Murray said he would start practising on hard courts on Monday and would now target a return in the US hardcourt season.

Murray’s withdrawal is a big blow for the tournament especially as he appeared to be moving towards full fitness.

Murray now faces the prospect of losing virtually all of his ranking points having reached the quarterfinals last year where he hobbled to defeat against American Sam Querrey.

His place in the draw taken by lucky loser Jason Jung of Taiwan.