ANDY MURRAY’S tennis career has come to an end after a thrilling Olympic doubles run befitting of the British legend.
The Scot, 37, and Dan Evans had saved SEVEN match points in a nerve-jangling run to the third round in Paris, but American third seeds Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz proved too good.
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The Brits, who have had fans on the edge of their seats throughout their run at Roland Garros, lost 6-2 6-4 in an hour and 17 minutes on the Suzanne-Lenglen Court.
They had previously looked dead and buried in their first round match against Japanese pair Kei Nishikori and Taro Daniel, before saving five match points to win a nailbiter 2-6 7-6 11-9.
And despite winning the first set against Belgian duo Joran Vliegen and Sander Gillé, they had to save another two before coming through 6-3 6-7 11-9.
They did actually save another one here, but this time there was to be no Houdini act as the curtain came down on the career of one of Great Britain’s greatest ever sportsman.
Murray announced before the Paris games that he would be retiring following the Olympics.
The Scottish hero had already pulled out of the Olympic singles last week – ending his singles career in the process.
Murray previously claimed medal glory three times at the Olympics.
The first came at home in London 2012, when he won gold in the men’s singles event and scooped a silver in mixed doubles alongside Laura Robson.
He then successfully defended his title at the Rio Games four years later, making him the first male player to win two Olympic singles titles.
His swansong comes just weeks after he pulled out of his last Wimbledon singles campaign with injury.
Murray played his final match at Wimbledon on centre court with brother Jamie after Emma Raducanu was forced to withdraw from their mixed doubles game as a precaution after suffering wrist pain.
During his time on the ATP tour, Murray won an astonishing 46 titles, including three grand slams, and was only outside of the top ten for one month between July 2008 through to October 2017.
While he also occupied the world number one spot for 41 weeks, finishing 2016 as the year-end no.1 seed.
His first grand slam came at the US Open in 2012 when he beat Novak Djokovic in the final.
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Andy Murray’s career timeline
SIR Andy Murray is Great Britain’s most successful tennis player of the Open era.
After breaking through in 2005 to reach the Wimbledon third round at 18, the Scot was British No1 by the following year.
In 2008 he reached his first Grand Slam final at the US Open, only to fall to Roger Federer in straight sets.
Two more final defeats at the Australian Open to Federer and Novak Djokovic followed in 2010 and 2011 before heartbreak at Wimbledon in 2012.
Despite taking the first set against Federer, he fell 4-6 7-5 6-3 6-4 in front of a home crowd before breaking into tears on Centre Court.
But a month later on the same court he beat the Swiss legend to earn Team GB a gold medal at the London 2012 Olympics.
And weeks after that he broke his Grand Slam duck at the fifth attempt, beating Djokovic in five sets in the US Open final.
In 2013, following another Australian Open final loss, Murray beat Djokovic in straight sets to become the first British man in 77 years to win the Wimbledon title.
Three more losing Grand Slam finals followed, at the 2015 and 2016 Australian Opens and the 2016 French Open.
But in his third Grand Slam final of 2016, Murray won Wimbledon again with a straight sets victory over Canadian Milos Raonic.
He followed it up with his second Olympic gold medal, beating Juan Martin del Potro in a four-hour epic in the final in Rio de Janeiro.
Later in 2016 Murray became world No1 – the first British man to do so in history.
Over his career Murray reached 11 Grand Slam finals, winning three. He won two Olympic golds and a silver (in the mixed doubles alongside Laura Robson).
He will finish his career with 46 titles and over £50million in earnings, making him the fourth all-time leader in earnings.
And – if he can achieve the perfect fairytale ending, as unlikely as it seems – hopefully another Olympic medal in the doubles alongside Dan Evans.
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A year later he defeated Djokovic once again to claim his maiden victory at Wimbledon and become the first Briton since Fred Perry in 1936 to win on home soil.
He would have to wait until 2016 to win his second title at SW19 after losing three other major finals in that time span, while then adding the Davis Cup to his trophy cabinet in 2015.
Murray struggled with injuries in the latter stages of his career, fighting back from career-saving hip surgery in 2019.
A back injury forced him to pull out of this year’s Wimbledon singles tournament.
During his farewell speech at Wimbledon, Murray said it was “physically it’s too tough” to carry on playing.
He said: “It is hard because I want to keep playing, but I can’t.
“Physically it’s too tough now. I want to play forever. I love the sport.”
His tennis exploits earned him a knighthood, which he was awarded in 2017 and presented with in 2019.
Murray got married to Kim Sears in 2015, with the pair having four children together.
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He has already revealed what he will be getting up to after he hangs up his racquet.
Speaking to Hello Magazine, he said: “I’ll definitely still be playing tennis. Just not on the Tour.
“I plan to play a lot more golf, and I’ll probably carry on working with my Strength and Conditioning coach, Matt Little, as I transfer from being a full-time athlete and adjusting to not needing to do quite so much.
“I put on weight during Covid when I wasn’t training as much and eating junk. I didn’t really like it, so I need to avoid that.
“I’ve also been taking Vital Proteins collagen for a while.
“Following problems with my ankle, I was advised to use collagen supplements as I was only getting small amounts of collagen in my diet, so supplementing is a good option for me and supports my overall fitness plan.
“It’s all about consistency; I will continue to add a scoop to my morning coffee.”
Andy Murray is Britain’s greatest sports star this century
By Rob Maul
ANDY MURRAY is Britain’s greatest sports star this century.
Okay, that is a bold statement to make.
And Bradley Wiggins, Mo Farah, Ben Ainslie, Lewis Hamilton, Jonny Wilkinson, Mark Cavendish, Tony McCoy or Jessica Ennis-Hill might all disagree.
But show me something else in British sport over the past 24 years who has achieved as much as he did considering the stellar competition he faced across the net.
Show me someone who dealt with such enormous pressure on their shoulders.
Muzza, 37, broke a 77-year wait for a men’s singles Wimbledon champion when he beat Novak Djokovic in straight sets on a hot July day in 2013.
But the suffocating expectations on him from the British public and media was so great he used to suffer from mouth ulcers during the Championships.
The Scotsman – who survived the Dunblane shooting massacre as a kid on March 13, 1996 – rose to the top of his sport through perseverance, bloody-mindedness and a warrior spirit.
Look at his CV and it underlines his claim to be our best ever sports person in the 21st century.
Two Wimbledon titles, one US Open success, two Olympic singles gold medals, a Davis Cup triumph and status as the world No.1 between November 2016 and August 2017.
He did all that in an era defined as a golden period for men’s tennis – his adversaries were legends Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal.
As he says farewell at the Paris Olympics – his second ‘retirement’ period after the aborted swansong of 2019 – we should remember all that he achieved.
The fact he came back to the sport five years ago and won titles with a metal hip implant was testament to his personality and character.
Three times Murray was named as the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, more than anyone else in the show’s 70-year history.
Some might see SPOTY as an irrelevance these days but it is a good guide of who the British public love – and they voted in their droves to recognise a true hero.
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