Tennis

Andy Murray Embracing New-Found Freedom After Tennis Retirement

Andy Murray, who won three grand slam titles across a glitter⛎ing 19-year career, saw hi♛s time on the court come to an end at Roland-Garros in the Paris Olympics

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Andy Murray has said retirement from tennis has been the opposite 🐻of his expectations
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Andy Murray expected to miss playing tennis after putting his racket down for the final time last month but said retirement has been "the complete opposite" to what he anticipated. (Full US Open Coverage | More Tennis News)

Murray, who won three grand slam titles across a glittering 19-year career, saw his time on the court come to an end at Roland-Garros in the Paris Olympics.

The 37-year-old competed alongside Dan Evans in the men's doubles, reaching the quarter-finals of the competition to eventual bronze medallists Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul.&n🌱bsp;

Murray withdrew from Wimbledon ahead of the Games after picking up a back injury against&n🍬bsp;Jordan Thompson at 🐠the Queen's Club Championship, the latest of many injury setbacks towards the latter stages of his career.

"Since I've stopped, I feel really free and have got lots of time to do whatever it is I wan🌃t," Murray told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"I can dedicate time 🐲to my children and have free tim🉐e to play golf or go to the gym on my own terms.

"It is really nic🎉e and I didn't expect that. I was expecting to find retirement hard and be missing tennis a lot and wanting to get back on the tennis court on tour.

"So far it ha��s been the complete opposite to🧔 what I was thinking."

The 37-year-old won his first grand slam in 2012 at the US Open before༺ ending Britain's 77-year wait for a men's Wimbledon champion in 2013, winning it again in 2016.

During his career, Murray played 1,001 singles matches in his career, earning his landmark victory against&n𓄧bsp;Alexei Popyr🌳in in three sets at Queen's.

After his injury in W14, the Scot vowꦉed that the 2024 Olympic🦋 Games would be where his career ended, a competition he won two gold medals in 2012 and 2016.

While there was no perfect ending in the French capital, Murray revealed he was now spending some qu🦋ality time with h🐲is family. 

"The thing that I always found difficult ﷺin recent years was th✅at there was always a guilt associated with what I was doing," Murray said.

"If I was going away for a trip of like three to fo𝓰ur w𒉰eeks I would feel guilty leaving my children at home or being away from my wife for a long time with them, so missing the kids I found hard.

"But if I was aౠt home 𓂃with the kids then I was running around and spending a lot of my time on my feet after training.

"I was then thinking 'is this going to affect my training or performance the next day, should I have my feet up?' I found that stꦡuff difficult over the last few years."