Andy Murray announces retirement from tennis after Olympic Games

Sir Andy Murray has announced he will retire from tennis after the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Murray exited Wimbledon for the final time alongside his brother Jamie in the men’s doubles, having not been able to play in the singles competition due to injury or the mixed doubles due to the withdrawal of his partner Emma Raducanu.

And in the week before the Games, he announced it would be his last tournament.

“Arrived in Paris for my last ever tennis tournament,” Murray posted on X/Twitter. “Competing for (Britain) have been by far the most memorable weeks of my career and I’m extremely proud to get do it one final time!”

At the Olympics, Murray is expected to compete in the singles and the men’s doubles. He is already an Olympic champion, having beaten Roger Federer in straight sets to win gold at London 2012. Murray successfully defended his title four years later in Rio, when he was Team GB’s flag-bearer for the Games. The Paris Olympics will be 37-year-old Murray’s fifth Olympic Games.

Paris 2024 may not bring up the same emotions from Murray as his Wimbledon farewell, when an interview conducted by Sue Barker – who had been there on court for his Wimbledon final defeat to Federer in 2012 and his victory over Novak Djokovic the following year – provided quite the send-off.

He became the first British Wimbledon men’s singles champion in 77 years when he won at the All England Club in 2013, before going on to win the tournament a second time in 2016.

He then became the only man to win two Olympic gold medals in the singles at Rio in 2016.

His career was derailed by a chronic hip injury, and over the last few years he has struggled to achieve the level that saw him become world No 1 in 2016.

He first announced his retirement at the Australian Open in 2019, before returning after hip surgery.

At the start of 2024 he indicated that he planned to finish at some point over the summer but he had been vague as to the exact date.

The ankle injury he suffered at the Miami Open in March cast doubt over his ability to even appear at Wimbledon, and another setback came when he sustained a back injury at Queen’s Club and underwent an operation to remove a spinal cyst, which ultimately limited him to just one doubles appearance.

Murray has always fought for others, correcting those who diminished the achievements of female tennis players, and will be remembered for being Britain’s first men’s singles Wimbledon champion since Fred Perry in 1936.

First minister John Swinney hailed Murray as “our greatest ever sportsman” as the tennis star announced his decision to retire from tennis after the Paris Olympics.

In a post on X, the first minister thanked the 37-year-old for “an outstanding and inspiring career which has made a profound impact on so many”.

Wimbledon posted: “All the best, @andy_murray,” and his mother Judy commented: “5th Olympics. Final tournament.”