Andy Murray has admitted that there is “uncertainty about the summer” as he dreams of playing at the Olympics, but at the same time he has vowed not to “just take one of the other guys’ spots” on the Great Britain team.
The three-time Grand Slam winner admitted in February that he is likely to bring the curtain down on his brilliant career later this year as he “did not plan on playing much past this summer”.
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Murray plans to play a full grass-court season with Wimbledon likely to be his last tournament on the surface, but he has also confirmed that he would love to play at the 2024 Olympics.
This year’s Paris Games will take place after Wimbledon as it will run from July 27 to August 4 at Roland Garros and many believe that may well end up being the tennis great’s last-ever professional tournament.
However, in a new interview with The Times, the former world No 1 made it clear that he only wants to play if he feels he is good enough to win a medal.
“I would love the chance to play in another Olympics but also genuinely only if I felt like there was a chance of winning a medal,” he said.
“I’m also very conscious as well that because of how amazing my experiences at the Olympics have been, I would want to be there by right and not just take one of the other guys’ spots because it is a brilliant opportunity.
“We have top doubles players [Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski are ranked inside the world’s top 10] and also Jack [Draper], Cam [Norrie] and Evo [Dan Evans] in singles as well.
“I don’t want to be in a position where I’m getting selected to play there just because it might be the last tournament that I play. That’s why there is a bit of uncertainty about the summer, because I’m not sure what will happen with that.”
Murray won gold in the singles at the 2012 London Games and then successfully defended his title four years later at the Rio Games.
He withdrew from the singles at the 2020 Tokyo Games as he was struggling with injury, but teamed up with Salisbury in the doubles and they exited the tournament in the second round.
Murray believes doubles will again represent his best opportunity to win a medal.
“When I played with Joe, I had the conversation beforehand with him that my feeling was there was a greater chance of me winning a medal in doubles than singles,” he added.
“I had a slight tear in my right quad before the tournament, so I chose to pull out of the singles and go for doubles. That probably would be one of my toughest losses, actually, because we were a set up with 4-3 and game point on my serve in the quarters.”