Andy Murray has been forced to withdraw from the Davis Cup and end his season after suffering a shoulder injury in training. He had been training at the National Tennis Centre this week and preparing for the final event of the year when he suffered the injury. Great Britain face Serbia on Thursday in Málaga at the Final 8 knockout stage of the Davis Cup finals.
“I’ve picked up a minor shoulder injury which means I won’t be able to take part in the Davis Cup,” said Murray. “I’m gutted not to be part of the squad but my focus is now on rehab and getting ready for the new season.”
The injury marks a grim but fitting ending to a difficult second half of the season. Murray lost five of his last six matches and although he has maintained his ranking by winning three ATP Challenger titles in the summer, he has won multiple matches at an ATP level once since March.
His challenging run-in culminated in a brutal loss to Alex de Minaur at the Paris Masters after holding a 5-2 third set lead and match point. Afterwards, Murray admitted that he has not been competing with joy over the final months of the season.
Murray’s difficult form also proved to be the catalyst for the 36-year-old to split with his coach, Ivan Lendl. The Davis Cup may have presented an opportunity for him to end his year on a more positive note, and the prospect of facing Novak Djokovic, his old rival, for the first time since 2017 would have been extremely motivating. Murray will instead focus on preparing for the new season, where he will begin at the Brisbane International in the first week of January before the Australian Open.
In the meantime, Murray will have ample time to consider his future in the sport.
Great Britain had advanced from the Davis Cup group stages with a strong team and a wealth of options underlined by their top four singles players ranked in and around the top 50, who each competed in September during their successful week in Manchester.
They will have no such depth in Málaga after Dan Evans, who played the most important role in Great Britain’s progression to the final eight by winning key singles and doubles matches in Manchester, has also withdrawn from the competition. Evans suffered a season-ending calf injury in his opening round match against Frances Tiafoe in Vienna last month.
The absence of Murray and Evans leaves little ambiguity about Great Britain’s lineup in Málaga, but they will still have a clear opportunity to advance to the semi-finals. The No 1, Cameron Norrie, will again lead the team. Norrie has been in poor form in the second half of the season and he has lost eight of his past 10 matches. After losing in Vienna last month, he opted to take some time off, withdrawing from the Paris Masters in an attempt to be fresher for the Davis Cup and he has been training at the ATP Finals in Turin for the past few days.
If Djokovic competes in Málaga, he will be the heavy favourite against Norrie, meaning the singles match between the second players could be a must-win for Great Britain. Jack Draper, Great Britain’s second player, has recently rediscovered some of his best form after returning from injury, narrowly losing his first ATP final in Sofia last week and winning an ATP Challenger in Bergamo. The 21-year-old made his Davis Cup debut in Manchester, narrowly beating Thanasi Kokkinakis in the tie against Australia.
The team is rounded off by two of the best doubles players in the world and owners of the last two grand slam titles: Wimbledon champion Neal Skupski and Joe Salisbury, the US Open champion, who was drafted in after Evans’s withdrawal. The LTA may confirm a fifth player at a later date.
