Andy Murray will end his season after playing upcoming tournaments in Shenzhen and Beijing to be “in the best possible shape” for the Australian Open in January.
Former world No. 1 Murray returned to the ATP tour in June after having hip surgery last January and has played nine competitive matches this year. He is currently ranked No. 308 in the world.
The Briton will skip the two Masters series events in Shanghai and Paris next month but will feature in Shenzhen and Beijing over the next two weeks.
“I’m competing this week in Shenzhen and then next week in Beijing before calling an end to the year competitively and I’m going to miss the last couple of tournaments to the year,” Murray, 31, said in video posted on Facebook Saturday.
“I need a lot of training and reconditioning to get myself in the best shape possible for the beginning of the 2019 season and to get myself back competing for the biggest tournaments again.”
Murray withdrew from Wimbledon and lost in the second round at the US Open last month.
“I’m looking forward to getting some hard training done and making some more improvements. It’s been really positive the last few months and I feel like I’ve made big strides forward in the rehab from the hip surgery,” he said.