Andy Murray, who was playing in New York with a blood clot on his lung, will no longer hold the world No. 1 spot for the entire season. Novak Djokovic has won three of the past four titles, including the U.S. Open. (Billie Jean King /Icon Sportswire)
Andy Murray has been released from hospital a week after sustaining his injury in New York and said the decision to pull out of his fourth round match at the U.S. Open was solely his and his own choice.
The Englishman has stated that his next tournament, the China Open, in Beijing, will be his final one of the year.
Tennis star Andy Murray has returned home to Scotland and said he was “in the best shape I’ve ever been in”, one week after being forced to pull out of the U.S. Open due to a blood clot on his lung.
Murray was competing in New York last week when he suffered a recurrence of the pain he felt in his shoulder during the build-up to the event.
It had continued into the match against Sam Querrey in the fourth round, forcing him to hobble out of the stadium to be treated. He visited a hospital the day after the match and has since been discharged, having been advised by doctors not to travel and advised that he stay on close watch by them.
Describing himself as in the “best shape I’ve ever been in”, he added that he is now “looking forward to getting the most out of the rest.”
Murray, 33, did not play again in New York and will today say his goodbyes to a golf course owned by his late father-in-law, the former British No. 1 and Scotland captain, Bernie Anstey. Murray is heavily invested in the estate and said it was “the last thing I’ll be doing” before he travels to China to continue his tennis comeback.
His involvement in the U.S. Open was not the first time in 2017 that he had withdrawn injured from a tournament due to a chronic injury and prompted comparisons with fellow two-time U.S. Open champion Roger Federer.
However, many Australian commentators have expressed a view that Murray’s attitude to health and illness is par for the course and are supporting him with fondness and condolence for what has been, for him, a miserable year in which he was robbed of the U.S. Open in late August after he pulled out of the semi-final because of illness in what was widely viewed as a deliberate ploy to keep his hopes of grabbing a spot in next year’s tournament alive.