There was a period during Andy Murray’s second-round match against fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas where it seemed the former champion was going to roll back the years and produce another memorable victory on Wimbledon’s Centre Court.
But the 36-year-old Briton ultimately fell to a 7-6 (7-3) 6-7 (2-7) 4-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 defeat, and this latest Wimbledon loss felt particularly crushing for a 36-year-old who had hopes of reaching the latter stages of this year’s tournament after a difficult few years.
Murray, a two-time winner of this grand slam, led by two sets to one in a thrilling battle before play was stopped Thursday because of the tournament’s 11 p.m local time curfew.
On resumption on Friday, Tsitsipas – 12 years younger than Murray – took the upper hand, drawing level after a fourth-set tie-break and securing the final set to leave Murray pondering whether he’ll play at his home grand slam again.
When asked how confident he was of competing at Wimbledon next year, Murray told reporters: “I don’t know. Motivation is obviously a big thing.
“Continuing having early losses in tournaments like this doesn’t necessarily help with that. I don’t plan to stop right now. But, yeah, this one will take a little while to get over.”
Murray exited Wimbledon at the second round last year and lost in the third round in 2021. He has not gone beyond the third round in a major since 2017.
After winning two tournaments in the build up to Wimbledon this year, and skipping the French Open to focus on the grass court season, the former world No.1 hoped for better this time around.
“Ultimately this was an opportunity for me. I had a good chance of having a proper run for the first time in a long time at a slam. I didn’t take it,” said Murray, who had career-saving hip surgery in 2019.
“Regardless of the atmosphere and those things, it’s still very, very disappointing to be sitting here right now.”