Andy Murray made an announcement Tuesday that everyone knew was coming, but no one wanted to hear. After a 19-year career that included three Grand Slam trophies and two Olympic gold medals, Murray confirmed he will retire from tennis after competing in the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Arrival in Paris for my last tennis tournament @Olympic Games
Competing for the 🇬🇧 has been by far the most memorable weeks of my career and I am extremely proud to be able to do it one last time! pic.twitter.com/keqnpvSEE1— Andy Murray (@andy_murray) July 23, 2024
Murray, 37, is the greatest British tennis player of the last two decades, although he has been plagued by injuries for much of the last eight years. A junior player, he won the junior US Open in 2004, then turned professional in 2005 and won his first ATP title in 2006. He became the British No 1 before the end of the year, made his first appearance in the ATP top 10 in 2007 and reached his first Grand Slam final at the US Open in 2008.
This was when Murray came into his own. He rose to world number two in 2009 and reached his first Australian Open final in 2010, a feat he would do four more times without winning the trophy. He won the US Open in 2012, his first major title, and his second in 2013 at Wimbledon, becoming the first Briton to win the singles title on British soil since 1936. He won it again in 2016, the same year he also reached the finals of the Australian Open and the French Open.
Murray finally reached the number one spot in the ATP rankings for the first time in November 2016, and he remained there until August 2017. But it was also in 2017 that injuries began to affect Murray’s performances. He suffered from back problems, but especially hip pain, which ended his competitive career. By early 2019, he was actively talking about retiring due to the pain he was experiencing.
Hip resurfacing surgery, an alternative to hip replacements in which metal pieces are placed over parts of the hip bone, has allowed Murray to live with much less pain and play for the past four years. He has taken a step back from retirement and, while he hasn’t been able to regain his early form, he has never, ever stopped trying.
Murray’s retirement after the Olympics is as perfect an ending as one could hope for. Despite years of pain and surgeries and wondering if he would ever play again, he was able to end his career on his own terms, doing something that has brought him great joy and success over the years: representing the United Kingdom at the Olympics. Murray won two gold medals in the men’s singles, one on home soil at the 2012 London Olympics (where he also won silver in the mixed doubles), and the other at the 2016 Rio Games.