The recent decision by the World number 2 to pull out of the US Open a day AFTER the Mens Singles Draw was made has a lot of people talking as many are asking the same question, 'Why did you enter Andy' ?
It is a fact that Murray is injured, he played with obvious discomfort at Wimbledon where he lost the final two sets of his quarter final to Sam Querrey, 1-6, 1-6. So where has he been for the last two months ?
Andy Murray has not played a match since that loss, no warm up tournament for the US Open, he has been a ghost, yet his name came up at the bottom of the Mens Singles draw in New York .
In all seriousness that draw probably had him playing off in the final, such was the discrepancy in the bottom half to the talent laden top half.
It was a dream draw for the World number 2, no risk at all.
So what happened ?
"I certainly wouldn't have been hurting myself more by trying to play. It was more a question of whether it would settle down in time," Murray said. "Obviously I kind of ran out of time."
"Was actually practicing OK the last few days," he added, "but it's too sore for me to win the tournament. And ultimately, that's what I was here to try and do."
Andy Murray
So why did he leave it so long to withdraw ? Well tennis is one of those sports, many call it a selfish sport where it's simply you versus someone else, a sport that Andre Agassi describes as 'being on an island'.
Tennis promotes self importance, not only in play but in coaching, it's all about you. Agassi is very correct.
How else would you describe what Andy Murray did ? One of my recent posts on another selfish tennis player ( or rather, ex tennis player, now 'tourist', Dmitry Tursunov ) in fact has nothing on what Andy Murray just did. The Russian's latest effort pales in significance to what the two time Wimbledon Champion did in New York.
Only Andy Murray knows why he left it so late to pull out of the year's final Grand Slam but one thing is for certain, he has lost a lot of fans over it. Why ? Well that's simple.
If Murray had withdrawn some 24 hours earlier ( which he obviously should have ) Roger Federer would have been promoted to the number 2 seeding thus saving the bottom half of the draw from being a total non event as far as stars were concerned.
As it now stands we have a player ranked 32 ( Anderson ) and a player ranked 19 ( Carreno Busta ) who will play off for a spot in the final to meet either Nadal or Del Potro.
Roger Federer, despite admitting to be not 100 per cent physically or mentally for this year's event would have had little trouble with either of the two players who will probably be cannon fodder for who ever they meet in the final.
Even a 'non perfect' Roger Federer would surely have made his way through that particular half of the draw.
So back to Andy Murray. For a player of his calibre and status in the World of tennis it was quite possibly the dumbest and strangest thing he has ever done. He had almost two whole months to work out whether or not he was going to actually play in New York and he made the decision to not play a day after the paper work had been done.
I find that to be nothing short of bemusing.
Surely with all of the rehabilitation he has done since Wimbledon plus the practice matches that he has obviously played recently he would have known whether or not he could have made it through seven best of five matches. Surely.
"I always thought that he was going to be playing if he was here practising,"
"It was a little bit strange that he retired just the morning after the draw was made. It was something that is a little bit strange and difficult to understand."
( Rafael Nadal )
Even Rafa thought the timing was a little odd.
So this is what Andy Murray is now going to do. He's going to take the rest of the season off, yep, no more tennis for Mr Murray, he's worked out that his hip injury is not worth trying to play through.
Many people are asking the same question however regarding the US Open hierarchy's decision to not promote Federer to the number 2 seeding. Instead they simply moved a few players around at the bottom half of the draw. Perhaps it was all too hard to rejig the entire draw ?
Either way I think the recent social media posts say it all in regards to what the tennis loving fans now think of a player who should perhaps have been holidaying on an 'island' rather than messing up a potentially brilliant last Slam of the year.
Thanks Andy Murray for your efforts in New York this year, outstanding performance.........
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