British legend Andy Murray‘s Wimbledon career has ended in tragedy as his swansong match was cancelled before it even began – after his mixed doubles partner Emma Raducanu pulled out with a bad wrist.
Murray – who won the country’s 76-year wait for a tennis grand slam in 2012 – was intending to play his last matches with the 21-year-old English star in a celebratory climax to his stunning career.
The 37-year-old had been forced to bow out of the singles on Monday with a back injury to the heartbreak of scores of British fans, losing alongside his brother Jamie in the first round of the men’s doubles.
A two-time champion at Wimbledon, the Scottish star’s heartbreak comes after he bid the championship a tearful goodbye on Centre Court earlier this week – admitting it was now ‘too tough’ for him to continue playing.
Raducanu had previously described her excitement at playing with Murray – saying it was her ‘dream’ mixed doubles partnership.
She said in a statement: ‘Unfortunately I woke up with some stiffness in my right wrist this morning, so therefore I have decided to make the very tough decision to withdraw from the mixed doubles tonight.
‘I’m disappointed as I was really looking forward to playing with Andy but got to take care.’
Raducanu is due to play her fourth-round match against New Zealand’s Lulu Sun on Sunday, and at this stage there is no suggestion her wrist injury will rule her out of that match.
The 21-year-old thrashed No 9 seed Maria Sakkari to move into the third round of the singles on Friday night and said of her doubles with Murray: ‘It’s just an amazing opportunity to be able to play with him. It’s something that I’m going to cherish.’
But Raducanu on Saturday afternoon decided to be cautious with a wrist on which she had surgery last year.
She was asked after her second-round win whether she had any hesitation in agreeing to play mixed doubles with Murray. ‘For me it was a no-brainer,’ she replied. ‘In my team, they were asking me, ‘Emma, are you sure you want to play? Just in case you’re still in the tournament’. I was like ‘No-brainer’.’
So there was clearly some uncertainty in her team about the prospect of her playing three days in a row, and Raducanu herself said after the Sakkari win: ‘The scheduling of (the mixed) was not ideal.’
That was a reference to the fact they had been placed fourth on No 1 Court and were facing an extremely late night – far from ideal preparation for one of the bigger matches of her life.
That was widely seen as an attempt by the All England Club to make sure the match did not clash with England v Switzerland at Euro 2024.
But actually Wimbledon had little choice in positioning the match late, because one of the British pair’s opponents, El Salvador’s Marcelo Arevalo, had his first-round men’s doubles rained off on Friday and had to finish it this morning, so the schedule had to allow him sufficient time to rest between his two matches.
It surely means Murray’s final match at Wimbledon was his straight sets first round defeat with his brother Jamie in the men’s doubles on Thursday night, after which he took a look back at his career on court with Sue Barker.