Andy Murray has confirmed he will skip the Surbiton Trophy in preparation for Wimbledon this year after contending with a back complaint.
After a first-round exit at the French Open to Stan Wawrinka, Murray joined forces with Dan Evans in the men’s doubles, but Thiago Seyboth Wild and Sebastian Baez proved too strong, prevailing in two tie-breaks to win 7-6 (6) 7-6 (3).
And after winning the Surbiton Trophy last year during his grass court season, Murray has opted to instead play in Stuttgart before Queen's and Eastbourne, admitting after the French Open that he was “struggling a little bit” with his back.
“Unfortunately, I won't be back to defend my title at the Surbiton Trophy this year,” Murray confirmed.
“It's such a great tournament with amazing fans so it's been a tough decision but one my team and I felt we needed to make.”
Murray is also considering playing doubles with his brother Jamie at Wimbledon this year.
The two-time Wimbledon champion fancies another crack at SW19 this summer and might reprise his Davis Cup-winning partnership with his elder sibling.
“I may do, yeah. I’m not 100 per cent sure yet,” he sad. “My brother doesn’t have a partner for Wimbledon currently. We have spoken a little bit about it. So may do that, but not 100 per cent sure yet.
“I mean obviously Jamie could also get a good partner, as well. We’ll see what happens, but yeah, we’ll probably decide in the next few days probably.”
Murray entered the doubles to help him prepare for what he hopes will be a crack at a third Olympic gold medal later this summer, with the tennis event also being held at Roland Garros.
“I guess for both of us it was kind of an opportunity to put our names in the frame to play the Olympics,” added Murray.
“Me and Dan obviously were hoping to have a good run here. But it wasn’t to be. So I don’t know if we’ll get the opportunity. There’s guys obviously ahead of us in the rankings, and we’ve got good doubles players in the UK. Let’s see what happens.
“It was an opportunity to have a good run and didn’t happen. I don’t regret it. Obviously when you lose, if you could have said, ‘OK, you’re going to lose in the first round’ four days ago, yeah, you would regret sticking around.
“I felt like we had a good chance to do well and we agreed if we were going to play, we would play to try and win the tournament.
“So no I don’t regret playing at all. I have been struggling a little bit with my back the last couple of weeks, so I probably needed a few lighter days anyway.
“Yeah, I’ll get a chance to get home, start preparing on the grass and hopefully get a few good tournaments there.”
PA contributed to this report
