Andy Murray said he has no plans to retire “right now” after suffering a second-round defeat to Stefanos Tsitsipas at Wimbledon on Friday.
The 36-year-old was two sets to one up when the tournament’s 11pm curfew suspended play late on Thursday evening and the fifth-seeded Tsitsipas ultimately fought back to win in five – 7-6 (7-3) 6-7 (2-7) 4-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-4.
Murray, defeated on the 10th anniversary of his career-defining first Wimbledon title, admitted that his latest exit from the All England Club will “take a while to get over”.
“Motivation is obviously a big thing,” Murray said when quizzed on his future. “Continuing having early losses in tournaments like this doesn’t necessarily help.
“It’s similar to I guess last year. I had a long think about things, spoke to my family, decided to keep on going.
“I don’t plan to stop right now. But this one will take a little while to get over. Hopefully find the motivation again to keep training, keep pushing, try and keep getting better.”
Murray added: “I’m obviously very disappointed just now. You never know how many opportunities you’re going to get to play here.
“The defeats maybe feel a bit tougher. But, to be honest, every year that Wimbledon has not gone how I would like, it has been hard.
“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.”
Murray refuses to blame injury or curfew on defeat
Murray had sparked alarm at the end of the third set on Thursday evening, screaming in pain and going down clutching his left groin after a slip on court during the penultimate point of his set-clinching service game.
The Scot practised as normal ahead of the resumption on Friday and said he experienced no discomfort as he ultimately succumbed to defeat.
Andy Murray slipped on court late on Thursday evening but said he was not limited physically when his match resumed on Friday
“I wouldn’t describe it as an injury,” Murray said. “I obviously slipped, had some initial pain and discomfort when that happened.
“It’s like a jarring of the joint. It can be a little bit sore but I pulled up okay today.”
Murray also refused to blame the 11pm curfew and the suspension of his clash into Friday for his defeat, despite leading by two sets to one at the time.
“I didn’t necessarily think it was appropriate to keep going because it was highly unlikely we’d finish the match,” Murray said.
“It was unlikely someone was going to win that set in 20 minutes or 19 minutes, whatever we had left to play. It seemed like a reasonable time to stop.”
He added: “You never know what would have happened. The same result could have happened.
“We knew that we were only going to be able to play until 11pm. We knew the situation going into the match.”
