After a sensational run in Doha, Andy Murray won't compete at the 2023 Dubai Championships.
Initially, the Scotsman received a wild card for the event, but due to some withdrawals, he got promoted directly into the main draw thanks to his rankings, and the wild card was awarded to Australian Alexei Popyrin.
The draw was already released and Murray was supposed to take on the fifth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz in the first round, but eventually, the former world no. 1, who talked about his ambition to win titles after his final appearance at the Qatar Open, withdrew from the ATP 500 event in Dubai. The statement from the tournament reads:
"We regret to inform you that Andy Murray is unable to participate in this year's tournament. Andy has been dealing with a recurring hip injury that has unfortunately forced him out of Dubai. We wish Andy a speedy recovery and hope to see him back on the court in Dubai soon."
Although directly after the final match in Doha it seemed that Murray was physically fine and ready to compete, he changed his mind as he probably wants to focus on ATP 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami. Following the final loss, he said:
“Actually I felt okay physically. I mean, after some of the long rallies, like, you know, my legs at times were feeling a little bit heavy, but I felt okay physically. I just maybe – the one thing I’m reflecting on now, I didn’t feel like I maybe used the crowd as much as I could have done, or after the good points, like, had maybe as much energy as I have in sort of recent times and probably wish I had done that a little bit more, because I feel like when I’m expressing myself like emotionally like that’s when I play my best tennis."
“Physically, considering everything, I was quite happy with how I felt. I’ll speak to my team about next week, because the last time I played five matches in a row was in Stuttgart in a week, and this is a shorter tournament, because you start on the Monday, finish on the Saturday. So I played five matches in six days."
"Maybe Saturday’s one was the shortest, but four of them were pretty, pretty tough matches physically. At my age and with some of the issues that I’ve got, I do have to be mindful of those things, and I can’t just keep going until something happens. I need to be a bit smarter with that."
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