Andy Murray sparks US Open 2023 doubts after withdrawing from Canadian Open citing injury
Murray, on Thursday, was slated to face rising sensation Sinner on Centre Court with the chance to reach his maiden Masters quarterfinal since 2016
Crowd in Toronto were in for a "dessert", as claimed by the commentator, after world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz's win against Hubert Hurkacz in the round of 16 of the Canadian Open with Andy Murray set to face Jannik Sinner in the final men's singles tie of Thursday evening. But the three-time champion pulled out of the match in the 11th hour citing an injury concern which comes as a blow as Murray builds up towards gaining a seed for the 2023 US Open.
Murray, who is competing in the city for the first time since 2014, has had a wonderful run so far as he beat Lorenzo Sonego and Max Purcell to reach the pre-quarters of a Masters 1000 tournament for the first time since 2017 and for the first time in Canadian Open since his title-winning run in 2015 Montreal edition.
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Murray, on Thursday, was slated to face rising sensation Sinner on Centre Court with the chance to reach his maiden Masters quarterfinal since 2016, the season when he had claimed three such titles - Paris, Shanghai and Rome - and reached the finals in Cincinnati and Madrid. The winner would face a resurgent Gael Monfils.
However, just moments before the players would walk into the court, Murray pulled out of the match citing abdominal injury.
“The issue is my abdominal,” Murray told the Canadian Open fans. “So unfortunately I’m not going to be able to play this evening. I’m really sorry. I know I feel like I’ve let you down. I’ve rarely been in this situation in my career and I feel terrible.”
The 36-year-old later revealed that the injury was similar to the one he had incurred in Stuttgart final last year which forced him into missing the Queen's tournament and leaving him with minimal preparations for Wimbledon.
“I had a very similar issue last year in the tournament in Stuttgart before Wimbledon which forced me to miss the Queen’s Club tournament and I was able to play Wimbledon,” Murray said.
“It took me about 10 to 12 days before I was feeling good again. This is not as bad as that but obviously the danger if you compete and play on it is you make it worse. So, I’ll need to see how it develops over the coming days and hopefully feel better in a few days. I’m really sorry. Thank you.”
Will Murray return next week?
With the precautionary step, Murray will look to regain fitness and gear up for the Cincinnati Masters which he is scheduled to play next week. The tournament begins with the qualifiers on Monday before the main draw kicks off from Wednesday onwards. However, with the all-important US Open building up, Murray might want to skip the Cincinnati event and regain 100 per cent fitness for the final Grand Slam event.
Missing Cincinnati would also mean that he would let go of the chance to become a seeded player for the US Open. He has however edged closer to the spot after a run to the pre-quarters in Canadian Open.
