Andy Murray has been denied the chance to end his singles career at the scene of his greatest triumphs, as injury forces the tennis star to abandon a solo farewell appearance at Wimbledon.
The Scot will instead take to Centre Court today alongside his brother Jamie in the men’s doubles, his last competition at the All England Club.
Battles with injury have been a “tortured psychodrama” spanning years of his career, said Oliver Brown in The Telegraph, and his latest surgery was one “not even this indomitable athlete could surmount”. As Murray now prepares to retire after the Paris Olympics, his impending departure from the sport leaves a feeling of “profound sadness” and a “crater” to fill in British tennis.
‘Grind and graft’
Murray’s mission to compete in the Wimbledon singles event was derailed two weeks ago when he was forced to pull out of Queen’s with a back injury. Despite making “massive strides”, he was unable to recover in time to be “competitive across the best of five sets”, said Tumaini Carayol in The Guardian.
Although the Paris Olympics in July and August will be Murray’s final career appearance, his Wimbledon withdrawal ends the Grand Slam career of one of the “finest male tennis players the sport has ever seen”.
Part of a generation of “all-time greats”, he claimed three Grand Slam titles, including two at Wimbledon, and a stint as world No.1. Achieving these victories “usually meant” beating two of the formidable trio of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic at each tournament, and “absorbing many defeats in the process”.
But that is why Murray “deserves every accolade and more”, said Brown. While Federer “made tennis look blissfully easy”, Murray “reminded everyone that it was hard” and showed “grind” and “graft” in overcoming the odds to win.
The 37-year-old has remained “ever the competitor” in his long battle against injury, having been “struck down in his prime”, aid Andy Sims in The Independent. These physical struggles have “robbed” Murray of the “chance of a proper send-off” and brought an “outstanding era in British sport to a sad end”.
‘There will never be another’
Murray will undoubtedly be “lauded for his achievements”, said Kevin Palmer at Tennis365. He “rose to the top” in “an era that was tougher than any in the history of tennis”. The debate over who is the “greatest British sportsperson of all time” is “skewed by personal preference”, but Murray achieved so much in a “truly global” sport.
Ending Britain’s “77-year wait for a homegrown male champion” at Wimbledon in 2013 is surely enough to put Murray “top of that list”, said the Irish Independent. His win put an end to what had “long since become a national embarrassment”.
But more than his victories, it is the “perseverance” and “determination” that Murray has shown throughout his career that make him Britain’s greatest sportsperson, said Martin Samuel in The Times.
He “never was the best player” in his era, and often approached his career like a “madman” to overcome the challenges that he faced. Yet while “no doubt, his achievements will be matched, even overtaken” one day, there “will never be another” like him.