Andy Murray admitted on Wednesday night he is unlikely to play at the French Open later this month and is facing a race against time to compete at Wimbledon after suffering a recurrence of the lower back injury which has troubled him for the last 18 months.
The world No 2 had the same problem in Madrid last week and retired yesterday during his second-round match against Spain’s Marcel Granollers at the Rome Masters, on a day when he should have been celebrating his 26th birthday.
Murray said: “I’d be very surprised if I was playing in Paris. The whole year I try to peak for the Slams and get in the best shape possible for them.
“Depending on what happens at the French Open I will obviously do everything I can to make sure I’m 100 per cent for the next Slam, which is Wimbledon, but we’ll have to wait and see.”
The episode has echoes of the only previous occasion in Murray’s career when he retired from a match on the main tour, which, bizarrely, was also on his birthday. The Scot suffered a wrist injury playing on clay in Hamburg six years ago, after which he missed both the French Open and Wimbledon.
If he pulls out of Roland Garros it will be the first time he has missed a Grand Slam tournament since Wimbledon in 2007. Murray first felt the disc problem in his lower back at the end of 2011 and it troubled him for much of the early part of 2012.
He had eight pain-killing injections before last year’s French Open, where the problem surfaced again when he suffered back spasms playing against Jarkko Nieminen.
“The French is 10 days away now,” said Murray, who was tied at one set apiece at the time of yesterday’s withdrawal. “You need to be practising and training 100 per cent before going into a Grand Slam.
The French is incredibly physical as well. You need to be 100 per cent for that. It’s come at a tough time just now, so I need to make a decision and not do anything silly.”
Ruthless Rafa
Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal began laying the groundwork for a dream seventh title in Rome as the Spanish fifth seed beat Italian Fabio Fognini 6-1, 6-3 to reach the third round.
Nadal, who has won five titles since making his return after seven months out with a knee inj ury, won his 32nd match of the season against just two defeats. He can move back to fourth in the rankings should he win another Rome title.
Nadal will next play Ernests Gulbis, a 6-1, 6-1 winner over Serb Viktor Troicki. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was also among the casualties yeterday, with Polish underdog Jerzy Janowizc ripping off his shirt in celebration seconds after clinching the 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) win over the eighth seed.
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