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Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have paid tribute to Andy Murray following the former world number one’s retirement.
Murray gave a tearful, lingering wave to all sides of Court Suzanne Lenglen after he and Dan Evans were beaten in the quarter-finals of the Olympic men’s doubles on Thursday night in the final match of his career.
The Scot follows Federer in hanging up his racket, and the 20-time grand slam champion sent a video message to Murray to praise him for his achievements.
“Hey Andy, many, many congratulations my friend on an incredible career – Wimbledon champion, US Open champion, Davis Cup champion, Olympic champion and many more things you have achieved,” said Federer.
“So many Masters 1000s as well, world number one, and a sir. So, Sir Andy Murray, an incredible effort on the most wonderful of careers.
“A great human being and doing it all with a massive family at the end, and a hip and a body that clearly wasn’t giving you what you wanted any more. But you’ve been a true inspiration to me and many of the players out there and I’m so happy you could do it as long as you did.
“Just from my side Andy, I have so much respect. Loved playing against you, even though I lost so many times against you and it was brutal. Congrats on everything you’ve achieved and everything that’s to come. Only all the best and I’m sure we’ll see each other down the road. Enjoy the moment.”
Nadal and Novak Djokovic are now the only active members of the ‘big four’ that dominated the sport for a decade, and the Spaniard’s future, too, appears very uncertain.
Nadal also addressed a video message to Murray, saying: “I am very sad to do this video because you are one of the players that the locker room loves most, for your character, for your charisma and for the way that you have been always with me personally and with the rest of the players.
“I enjoyed it a lot being a rival, being a good colleague on the tour. I think we shared and we spent some great moments together. I just want to congratulate you for everything.
“You achieved your dream of becoming one of the best players of the world. The best, some moments, and doing amazing things for the world of tennis.
“Just wish you sincerely all the very best in your future with the family, having fun, and I hope to keep in touch and see you around very often. All the best my friend.”
Murray was given a guard of honour when he arrived at Team GB’s performance lodge in Paris on Friday morning.
He will not be heading straight home, with the 37-year-old soon to be joined by wife Kim and their eldest daughter Sophia to enjoy some Olympic sporting action over the next couple of days.
In an interview with Eurosport, Murray said he was “just looking forward to what’s next now”, and revealed he had received a message from Bjorn Borg.
“He said, ‘Congrats to one of the all-time greats, good luck for what’s next’,” said Murray.
“I’m very aware that the guys I was competing against had significantly better careers than I have.
“But, for a period in the middle part of my career, I was competing with them in the biggest tournaments consistently and I managed to get to number one in the world whilst they were all playing and that meant a lot to me.
“It hasn’t been easy to win the major competitions whilst they’ve been around. So, to have someone of that stature recognise that was obviously really special.”
