Andy Murray’s body is broken – it’s time for him to retire

Everyone seems to agree this is how Andy Murray should retire from tennis. The countdown is on, and after yet another bout of surgery, no one was expecting him to hang around long against men more than 15 years younger than him for much longer, but there was hope of one more characteristically monumental five-set recovery victory before he finally succumbs to chronology

Those hopes were dashed on Tuesday when a statement from the 37-year-old’s team read: ‘Unfortunately, despite working incredibly hard on his recovery since his operation just over a week ago, Andy has taken the very difficult decision not to play the singles this year.

‘As you can imagine, he is extremely disappointed but has confirmed that he will be playing in the doubles with Jamie and looks forward to competing at Wimbledon for the last time.’