Andy Murray plans tennis retirement at Wimbledon, all set for his Australian Open swansong

Multiple Grand Slam champion Andy Murray on Thursday announced that in all likelihood he would bid farewell to tennis at Wimbledon later this year.

Andy Murray

Melbourne: Multiple Grand Slam champion Andy Murray on Thursday announced that in all likelihood he would bid farewell to tennis at Wimbledon later this year. The former World No. 1 could not hold back his tears as he revealed his shocking retirement plans at a media press conference in Melbourne. Murray indicated that his chronic hip injury as the main reason behind him quitting from the sport, where he reached the very pinnacle, winning Grand Slam titles. The injury-ridden Scot has been hampered by a hip injury since his 2017 Wimbledon quarter-final loss to American Sam Querrey and has struggled to get back to top fitness levels after undergoing a surgery on the same, a year ago. The Scot who became Great Britain's first Wimbledon Champion in 76 years, after clinching the title in 2013, revealed that this month’s Australian Open could well be his last, but that if he makes it through then he will most definitely retire after Wimbledon in July. After admitting he's "not great", the 31-year-old said to the media in an emotional press conference: “I have been struggling for a long time. I have been in a lot of pain for about 20 months now. “I am in a better place than I was six months ago but I am still in a lot of pain. It has been tough. "During my training block I spoke to my team and told them I can’t keep doing this. I need to have an end point because I'm just playing with no idea of when the pain will stop. "Wimbledon is where i would like to stop playing but I am not certain I am able to do that. "I’m going to play [in Melbourne]. I can still play to a level. Andy Murray is hailed by tennis critics and fans as one of the best players in the 'Federer-Nadal Era' and was popularly tagged along with Federer, Nadal and Djokovic as  the 'Big Four' of men's tennis. He became the first British male player in the Open Era to win the Wimbledon Championships twice, conquering the grass at the All England Tennis and Croquet club in 2013 and 2016. Murray won his maiden Grand Slam title by winning the US Open in 2012. Murray brought laurels to his country by clinching successive golds at the Olympic Games, winning the men's singles title at the Rio and London Games.