Andy Murray is increasingly unlikely to get any fanfare when he officially retires from tennis, once his Olympics campaign comes to an end, an underwhelming factor compounded further by Angelique Kerber’s final match in Paris.
Kerber was defeated 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(6) by Qinwen Zheng in the women’s singles quarter-finals, the last match of her career, having confirmed that she would be retiring after the Olympics.
The German is a former world No. 1, Wimbledon, Australian Open and US Open champion, who decided to close out her time in professional tennis by competing for her country one more time.
When a tennis player takes to the court for their final time, they are often afforded the chance to address the crowd for an emotional goodbye, while some events go the extra mile and play farewell videos or messages.
But at the Olympics, no such ceremonies take place for any athletes, even those who have contributed so much to their respective sports such as Murray and Kerber.
Questions had been raised over whether the Olympic regulations would be broken for Murray, but Kerber was not given the chance to do so and after her defeat, walked off the court and only able to raise her hand to the crowd as she waved goodbye.
After coming off the court for one final time, Kerber praised the “great crowd” and explained that their treatment was why she wanted to go out at the Olympics, even though she was denied any official goodbye.
“You know, it was a great crowd,” she said. “And I just enjoyed it. So I think this is why you come back to having these emotions. And I’m really happy that I had the feeling today.”
But if Kerber’s exit is anything to go by, Olympic chiefs have already hinted that Murray will not get a similar reception to his final match at Wimbledon earlier this month.
After playing with his brother Jamie, BBC icon Sue Barker returned to the court to play a video message and pen her own tribute to an emotional Murray, who could not help but cry as Centre Court bid farewell to British tennis royalty.
But those at the Olympics will not get the chance to do the same for the 37-year-old, competing in doubles with Dan Evans.
ITF CEO Kelly Fairweather explained before the Olympics that International Olympic Committee (IOC) bosses were unlikely to let them pay tribute to Murray. She said: “If you’re asking about Paris, we obviously fall under the direction of the IOC, and generally the IOC don’t do that for any athlete across the Games. So as Dave says, we’ll be looking to do that at one of our events.”
There is a chance that Murray could receive another farewell at the Davis Cup in Manchester this November, but he would not be competing and it remains to be seen whether Murray would want to take up that opportunity.
