ANDY MURRAY is OUT of his final Wimbledon singles.
The two-time champion was desperate to make it back on to Centre Court for one final swansong farewell.
But he has been unable to recover in time following surgery last Saturday and withdrew from the tournament around eight hours before he was due to take to the grass.
Murray, 37, underwent a minor op to remove a cyst from his spine with the threat of gruelling competitive tennis reopening his stitches.
And unfortunately he does not feel ready to play his round-one clash with Tomas Machac, which was scheduled last on Centre Court around 6pm this evening.
But he is still due to play doubles with brother Jamie, which could start as late as Friday.
A spokesperson confirmed the sad news – and quashed any hopes of a dramatic comeback next year for a final goodbye.
A statement said: “Unfortunately, despite working incredibly hard on his recovery since his operation just over a week ago, Andy has taken the very difficult decision not to play the singles this year.
“As you can imagine, he is extremely disappointed but has confirmed that he will be playing in the doubles with Jamie and looks forward to competing at Wimbledon for the last time.”
Murray spoke to the media on Sunday.
He said: “I’ve been practising for the last few days. I played a set on Sunday. It went pretty well but I still don’t have 100 per cent sort of feeling and sensation in my leg yet.
“It’s getting better every single day. I want to give it every single chance that I can to get there.
“I’ve no back pain, which is obviously really good. But the nature of the problem that I had was I had quite a large cyst, which was squashing, compressing my nerves.”
The All England Club have confirmed plans are ready in place to honour Murray with a send-off – should he confirm this is indeed his last Wimbledon.
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PRIZE MONEY for the 2024 Wimbledon Championships is a new record – and puts the grass-court Slam at the top of the tree.
The All England Club will dish out £50million across all the events – an increase of £5.3m and 11.9 per cent on last year, where singles champions Carlos Alcaraz and Marketa Vondrousova picked up £2.35m each.
However, the king and queen of grass this July will collect an extra £350,000 – taking the winner’s earnings to £2.7m.
Here is the breakdown for the 2024 Wimbledon singles prize money:
