With Andy Murray One of the greatest tennis players has left the stage. He now treats himself to: no ice baths, no massages, and instead something sweet.
by Florian Goosmann
last edited: 10.08.2024, 11:15
Andy Murray
Roger Federer resigned in 2022, involuntarily, after his knee stopped working. Andy Murray gave his last hurrah at the Olympic Games – and then delighted the Twitter world with his wonderful irony: “I never liked tennis anyway.” The tweet now has more than a million likes.
It is well known that Murray loves tennis like no other – even if it did not always seem that way on the court. He would like to play forever, he said before retiring, but his body no longer allows it. “I knew in the last few months that this day would come,” reflected the Scot with compatriot Laura Robson. And he seems to be at peace with himself. “The week was wonderful. (…) We have great memories. We could easily have lost in the first round.”
Murray and his doubles partner Dan Evans already had match points against them (they were 4:9 down in the match tiebreak!), just like in round 2. In the end, they went all the way to the quarterfinals.
When he thought about that (last) day in the past few months, “I was sad”. In the end, it was “much easier, at least so far, than I expected”. The conversation took place just one day after Murray’s last match. After the last match, his physio asked him if he was going to go back into the ice bath. No, said Murray, no longer necessary. And a few last stretches? No, not anymore either.
Murray watches a bit of the Olympics
Björn Borg wrote to him, “that was pretty cool,” and he was also touched that the British team welcomed him and said goodbye to him.
“I am very aware that the guys I played against clearly had better careers than me,” Murray said, referring to Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, with whom he formed the “Big Four” – even though he was far behind in terms of numbers. Djokovic has now won 24 majors, Nadal 22, Federer 20. Murray won three Grand Slam tournaments, but often lost to the “Big Three”.
“But for a while I played against them consistently, made it to number 1 in the world. At a time when everyone was still playing. That meant a lot to me.”
Murray clearly enjoyed the days between his active sporting career and his retirement – and did what every sports fan would like to do at the Olympic Games: watch other competitions.
Photos and videos quickly made the rounds on X: Murray swimming. Murray playing hockey. Murray doing gymnastics, where he munched on a donut.
No ice baths, no stretching exercises and no sweets: he can now afford it. Even though he announced years ago that he did not want to end up like his former coach Ivan Lendl. During his playing days, he was a fitness freak par excellence, but soon began to put on a considerable weight after his career ended.
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