LONDON — Andy Murray’s Wimbledon career came to an anticlimactic end when Emma Raducanu, his mixed doubles partner, withdrew from the competition hours before Saturday’s first-round match because of a problem with her surgically repaired right wrist.
Murray, 37, a two-time singles champion at the All England Club, said he will retire after competing at Wimbledon and the Paris Olympics, which begin later this month.
The mixed doubles was expected to be the last event of the grass-court Grand Slam tournament for Murray, who withdrew from the singles because of an operation to remove a spinal cyst on June 22 and then bowed out in the first round of the men’s doubles. alongside his older brother, Jamie.
“Unfortunately I woke up with some stiffness in my right wrist this morning, so I decided to make the difficult decision to withdraw from mixed doubles tonight,” said Raducanu. “I’m disappointed because I was looking forward to playing with Andy but I had to be careful.”
She won the 2021 US Open as a qualifier at age 18, and since then her career has been hampered by a series of injuries. Raducanu underwent procedures on his wrists and ankle in 2023.
Her fourth-round singles match against Lulu Sun of New Zealand is scheduled for Sunday.
The All England Club feted Murray with a post-match celebration of his career after he and Jamie were defeated in the men’s doubles on Center Court on Thursday, including a four-minute highlight video that included tributes from Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal , Novak Djokovic and Venus Williams. .
Tournament organizers made the prescient decision to hold the special ceremony after that match – rather than waiting until he played mixed doubles – in case Murray and Raducanu ended up not competing together.
As the mixed doubles brackets were already defined with the official draw, Murray was not allowed to find a new partner in order to remain in that event.
Katie Volynets and Rajeev Ram have been moved to the mixed doubles field to replace Raducanu and Murray, and will face Zhang Shuai and Marcelo Arevalo.
Murray’s Wimbledon title in 2013 made him the first British man in 77 years to win the singles championship at the tournament, and he won the trophy again in 2016.
Murray also won the 2012 US Open, finished 2016 number one in the ATP rankings, won two singles gold medals at the Summer Olympics and led Great Britain to the Davis Cup title.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
