LONDON — Andy Murray on Sunday announced on his Facebook page that he was withdrawing from Wimbledon due to a hip injury.
“It is with a heavy heart that I’m announcing that I’ll be withdrawing from Wimbledon this year,” Murray wrote. “I’ve made significant progress in practice and matches over the last ten 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 to be ready in time.”
Jason Jung will take Murray’s place in the draw and faces France’s Benoit Paire on Tuesday.
Given Murray’s lack of competition over the past year, his participation at the All England Club was in some doubt.
Murray’s hip problems were an issue heading into last year’s Wimbledon tournament, and he tried numerous times to return to the court after being ousted as the top seed in a five-set quarterfinal against American Sam Querrey.
Unsuccessful in trying to return to competition, Murray opted to have hip surgery in January, and he has played just three matches since returning from the procedure. Murray told reporters in his Saturday pre-tournament news conference that he was taking it all day by day.
“I’m practicing at a high level, a high intensity, every day with some of the best players in the world. That’s really positive for me as part of getting better, to compete again,” he said. “In other sports when you come back, you don’t tend to come back and be competing against the best in the world immediately. You would build up a little bit.”
Murray admitted to feeling pain after his return to action against Nick Kyrgios at the Queen’s Club earlier this month but now says those initial aches have stopped.
“There’s certain things that are still tricky and things I’m still trying to work through,” Murray said Saturday. “These things are significantly better than what they were a few months ago, that’s for sure. But, you know, again, it just takes time.”
The 31-year-old from Dunblane, Scotland, defeated Novak Djokovic in the 2013 final to become the first British Wimbledon champion in 77 years. He repeated the feat in 2016 with a straight-sets win against Milos Raonic.