Andy Murray’s withdrawal from the 2024 Olympics men’s singles tennis tournament in Paris has caused chaos at Roland Garros as the Briton prepares to call time on his professional career.
Murray was included in Team GB’s squad for the tournament, which begins on August 2 with the men’s doubles.
But despite entering into the singles’ draw, the 37-year-old dropped out to concentrate on participating in the doubles’ alongside his partner, Dan Evans.
His decision to pull out caused a delay for Olympic Games organisers, who were due to host the draw from 10am (BST) in France but were 20 minutes late in kicking things off.
As the draw concluded, an empty slot showed up on the screen titled ‘Alternate AAA’, which is likely to have been caused by Murray’s removal from the singles’ reckoning. In this case, the ‘alternate’ player was drawn to face Sebastian Ofner of Germany.
While the proceedings may have been delayed, it was worth the wait as far as tennis fans were concerned after being handed a potential treat in the second round of the draw.
Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will meet in round two at Roland Garros if they emerge unscathed from their first round matches.
The 14-time French Open winner Nadal takes on Hungarian player Marton Fucsovics, while Djokovic faces Matthew Ebden in round one.
That may have left the three-time Grand Slam winner to consider what might have been in his final tennis tournament, especially with a winnable tie against Ofner.
But in explaining his decision to remove himself from the singles’ draw, Murray admitted that he is unable to cope with so many matches in such a short space of time.
Obviously me and Dan have made the commitment to each other that [doubles) was what we were going to prioritise,” Murray said.
That gives the team and us the best opportunity to get a medal, realistically. My back is still not perfect and the potential of playing two matches in a day is maybe not the best.”
In the doubles’ draw, Murray and Evans will be pitted up against the Japanese pairing of Kei Nishikori and Taro Daniel. Murray’s partner Evans will continue to play in the singles’ draw as planned and he takes on Moez Echargui.
British No 1 Jack Draper faces Nishikori and Cameron Norrie will play Tallon Griekspoor. In the women’s draw, Katie Boulter is up against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
