"It made me really sad...it just came out nowhere" - Andrea Petkovic on Andy Murray's announcement of possible 2024 retirement

Former World No. 9, Andrea Petkovic, recently expressed how she felt when Andy Murray announced he could possibly retire during the summer.

Andy Murray competed in the just-concluded Dubai Tennis Championships, where he defeated Denis Shapovalov in the first round but lost to the eventual winner, Ugo Humbert, in the second round.

Murray turned 36 in May 2023, and in recent seasons, his form has declined due to a couple of injuries that necessitated surgeries.

In a recent podcast on Tennis Channel Inside-In, Petkovic was asked about her reaction to Andy Murray saying he might retire in the summer. She expressed being a big Andy Murray fan, and the news saddened her. Petkovic added that Murray could have achieved much more if not for his hip surgeries and the competition with the formidable trio of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer.

Andy Murray has undergone two hip surgeries over the years and is one of the four active players with three or more Grand Slam titles.

“It made me really sad. I'm a big Andy Murray fan and he could have achieved much more if he didn't have three metal hips” Andrea Petkovic said (26:51)

Petkovic, who retired in 2022, shared her retirement experience and highlighted the challenges players face as they age. She mentioned that aging came suddenly for her, bringing a slower recovery process and a loss of explosive muscles. However, the silver lining of aging, according to Petkovic, is the wealth of experience gathered over the years, enabling better game reading and smarter training.

“Putting that aside, from a personal experience how age came for me, it was very prompt and sudden. You feel the recovery process is slowing down, you can feel your muscles are not explosive anymore but you still kinda hang in there with the experience you have collected over the years with reading the game better than you use to in the beginning, with training smarter, but in the year I retired all of a sudden, I was old” said Petkovic

“What I see or maybe has happened to him that all of a sudden he is feeling the age,” Petkovic on Andy Murray's

In the same interview, Petkovic mentioned that Murray might be experiencing the sudden challenges that come with age, reaching a point where accumulated experience cannot fully offset the effects of the aging process.

“What I see or maybe has happened to him that all of a sudden he is feeling the age and it just came out of nowhere and yes, he felt it for a while but all of a sudden it just feels like your experience cannot balance out the things you lose by biology and the aging process,” Petkovic said

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Joseph is a Tennis journalist at Sportskeeda with over 4 years of experience in sports journalism. He holds a Law degree, but became a sports journalist out of his love for sports.

Joseph follows genuine pages on social media platforms, and verifies information via multiple sources to ensure accuracy in his articles. To stay up to date with the latest developments in the sport, he follows the WTA and ATP closely. His methods have helped him garner over 1.6 million views in just seven months at Sportskeeda.

He's a die-hard fan of Novak Djokovic, admiring not only his exceptional on-court skills, but also his off-court persona. For Joseph, the Serb is also the rightful recipient of the ‘GOAT’ tag and credits his achievement of 24 Grand Slam titles and reign of 422 weeks as World No.1.

The British culture and strict uniformity at the Wimbledon Championships make the event his favorite on the tennis calendar. Outside of tennis, Joseph passionately supports Manchester United and considers Lionel Messi the greatest sportsman of all time. In his leisure time, he enjoys expanding his horizons with documentaries, particularly those focusing on politics.

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Edited by Abigail Kevichusa