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A candid Andy Murray said that his disappointing first-round exit at the Australian Open Monday may mark his final appearance at Melbourne Park.
A five-time finalist Down Under, Murray felt deflated after his 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 loss to No. 30 seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry. At age 36 and with a metal hip, the Scot said that further performances like today would make it more difficult to push out any retirement date that he has in mind.
“It's a definite possibility that will be the last time I play here,” Murray said. “In comparison to the matches that I played here last year, it's the complete opposite feeling walking off the court. Yeah, wish I involved the crowd more. Just disappointed with the way I played… a tough, tough way to finish…
“I have an idea of when I would probably like to finish playing. So much of that depends on how you're playing. The time frame for that narrows when you play and have results like today.”
Monday’s listless performance was in stark contrast to Murray’s inspired performances 12 months ago. In the first round he toiled for almost five hours to defeat Matteo Berrettini in a fifth-set tie-break and followed that up with a 7-5 in the fifth win over Thanasi Kokkinakis in a match that finished at 4:05 am.
“It was really just a flat performance. I don't know exactly why that was the case because I've been feeling good going in,” Murray said. “Played pretty well in Brisbane. Practised really well the last 10 days or so…
“Today the crowd all showed up again and gave me brilliant support. I didn't give enough. I felt like I didn't give enough back and I'm disappointed with that because they have helped me a lot over the years in matches here.”
Murray, who is No. 44 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, said that he has spoken to his family and team about the timing of his retirement.
“I've spoken to them about it. I've spoken to my family about it. I've spoken to my team about it. They’re very aware of how I feel about things, where I would like to finish playing, when that would be.
“I haven't made any definite decisions on that. It's obviously something that I need to think about and see exactly when that is.”
Murray has won tour-level 46 titles, including three majors, two Olympic singles gold medals and the 2016 Nitto ATP Finals.
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