Andy Murray to swerve US Open singles

Andy Murray has opted against playing singles at this year’s US Open following his first round defeat to Richard Gasquet at the Cincinnati Masters on Monday.

The former world number one was playing in his first singles match since January after undergoing hip resurfacing surgery, but he struggled against his French opponent, who prevailed 6-4 6-4 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.

After the match Murray confirmed that he had turned down a wild card offer from the United States Tennis Association to play in this year’s US Open, which starts later this month, as he feels he is not yet ready to fully commit to playing best-of-five-set singles.

“We were hoping to maybe hold a wild card until a little bit closer to the time to see how I feel and get some matches hopefully and a bit of practice,” Murray said.

“[It was] a decision I made with my team. I didn’t want to take a wild card today because I just didn’t know how I was going to feel after a match. I felt like I wanted to be fair for me to maybe try and get a couple of matches in before making a decision like that.”

Murray has confirmed he will play both men’s and mixed doubles at Flushing Meadows, while last week he added two more singles events to his schedule – with next month’s Zhuhai Championships and China Open forming part of his return to the ATP Tour.

The 32-year-old’s first Grand Slam singles event could be the Australian Open at the start of next year, a tournament he is priced at 15.00 to win.