Andy Murray makes feelings clear on retiring after Wimbledon

Andy Murray claimed he is still “one of the best grass court players in the world” before starting his 15th Wimbledon next week. And the double champion, now 36, insisted he will not retire even if he completes a hat-trick of titles on July 16.

The former world No 1 will face wildcard Ryan Peniston in a Battle of Britain in his first match – with No 5 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas or Dominic Thiem awaiting in the second round. The Scot, who skipped the French Open to win Challenger events on the grass in Surbiton and Nottingham, said: “I want to go out there and perform at a level that I’m happy with. I do feel like I’m in a really, really good position to do that. I have the experience at this tournament. Playing on the big courts here more than – there’s only one player in the draw that has more experience of playing here than me, which is Novak (Djokovic).

“I actually don’t know this for sure, but maybe certainly will be one of the only players that’s won against him here, as well. I need to use that to my advantage and use my experience to my advantage and take confidence from that. I do believe I’m one of the best grass court players in the world, and I’m physically feeling really good. I prepared well, so there’s no reason why I can’t have a good tournament.”

Murray admitted last week that one more injury could end his career but he has plans to retire soon. “I’m not planning on stopping after I’ve won the tournament here,” he smiled. “I have an idea in my head of when I would like to stop. That’s not definitive. A lot of that is just I think it is good to do that so you can start planning a little bit.

“But, yeah, I don’t think I would announce anything, like, way ahead of time because I want to play as long as I can whilst I’m still feeling good physically and competitive. I’m aware, based on how my last sort of five, six years have gone, that things can change very quickly, as well. I’m keeping an open mind to that. Yeah, I do have an idea of when I’d like to stop, yeah.”

But he also admitted having an end date in mind helped him continue to make sacrifices for his career because he will not be going on forever. “Yeah, it’s a bit of that,” Murray said. “I started to think about it actually during the Australian Open this year, like after the matches I was having, it was like, this maybe isn’t that good for me, like, long-term to be playing those sorts of matches.

“Yeah, I could keep doing that probably, I don’t know, until the hip finishes. I don’t really want to do that. I want to finish on my terms when I’m fit and healthy and still competing at a good level. I would like to finish in that way rather than it being, like, an injury. I know you can’t control that entirely. But, yeah, I do feel like I’ve still got a period of time left where I’m going to be able to, yeah, dedicate the physical work and the training on the court to allow me to still perform at the highest level. But, yeah, that can’t go on forever, unfortunately.”

After the PIF takeover of golf, the ATP have admitted they are in talks about staging an event in Saudi Arabia. Murray has refused to play exhibition matches in the Kingdom because of human rights abuses. But he admitted: “If they become, like, major tournaments on the tour, it becomes a slightly different question, and it’s a difficult one, really, based on how the tour and the rankings and everything work, how important they are to get into other events and stuff. When you start missing them, you obviously get penalised for that. Yeah, it’s definitely something I would have to think about. Unfortunately, it’s the way that a lot of sports seem to be going now.”