“Don’t be Sad For Me! I Like Doing This”: Andy Murray Shuts Down Retirement Talk

Published 06/13/2021, 1:57 AM EDT

British tennis star Andy Murray has opened up on the endless chatter around his future in the sport.

The three-time Grand Slam champion has spent more time in rehabilitation than on the tennis court in the recent past, leading many to wonder if he needs to go through the rigors of training anymore when he can simply settle into retirement.

Andy Murray played the US Open last year but lost in Round 2

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Murray returned to Grand Slam action at last year’s US Open but crashed out in the second round after losing to Canadian star Felix Auger-Aliassime. He was to play the Australian Open this year but came down with Covid-19 just weeks before.

Despite recovering in time from the ailment, the Scot had to skip the Major as he couldn’t come to an agreement with the organizers on a quarantine arrangement. He returned at the Rotterdam Open but fell early after losing to eventual champion Andrey Rublev.

The 34-year-old Scot had to skip some events thereafter as his wife Kim Sears gave birth to their fourth child.

On his struggles on the fitness front, Murray told Guardian that a lot of his well-wishers have been advising him to stop and not push himself to return to tennis.

“There’s a lot of people telling me to stop playing tennis, that it’s sad, and they don’t want to see me playing like this, and he can’t stay fit, and he can’t do this, why is he still doing this,” Murray said.

He added that to these people, his simple advice is to not feel sorry for him as his love for tennis makes him want to return.

Murray says no one has forced him to train for a return to tennis

Murray said no one has forced him to return to tennis, and he is doing it out of choice. He added that many seem desperate for him to call it quits but he will keep doing what he loves till his body asks him to stop.

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“I say, ‘Don’t be sad for me! I like doing this, and I’m choosing to do it. No one’s forcing me.’ Sport is a strange one. People seem desperate for you to retire and stop doing what it is that you love doing,” Murray said.

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Priyabrata Chowdhury is a tennis author for EssentiallySports. He has been a print journalist for a decade, producing news pages for leading national dailies such as the Hindustan Times and The New Indian Express. His passion for sports eventually drove him to tennis writing.

“Don’t be Sad For Me! I Like Doing This”: Andy Murray Shuts Down Retirement Talk

Andy Murray played the US Open last year but lost in Round 2

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Murray says no one has forced him to train for a return to tennis