Andy Murray's post-retirement joke about 'never liking tennis' following Paris Olympics exit goes viral, liked by over 1 million
Andy Murray officially retired from professional tennis following his exit from the 2024 Paris Olympics men's doubles event. Soon after his exit, he posted an update about 'never liking tennis' and it has since gone viral.
On August 1, Great Britain's men's doubles pair of Andy Murray and Dan Evans took on the USA's Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul in the quarterfinal. In their previous two matches, the Brits were on the verge of elimination, facing match points during the match tiebreaker. However, they saved those match points in both instances to advance.
Against the USA, Murray and Evans were outclassed. Fritz and Paul pulled off a decisive 6-2, 6-4 victory to advance into the semifinals. The loss confirmed Murray's official retirement from tennis, as he had announced before the event that this was his final tennis tournament.
Post-retirement, Murray changed his X (formerly Twitter) bio from 'I play tennis' to 'I played tennis'. Moreover, he joked on the platform by tweeting:
"Never even liked tennis anyway"
Within four days, the update garnered over 1 million likes. Murray, who has over 3.5 million followers, also got over 44 million views on the tweet.
Andy's mother Judy continued the joke by reposting the tweet and writing:
"Me neither."
Fritz and Paul faced defeat in the semifinal to eventual gold medal winners, the Australian pair of Matthew Ebden and John Peers. The American pair of Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek won silver while Fritz and Paul settled for bronze.
"I gave as much as I could to the career" - Andy Murray hopes to have done some things differently but is proud of what he achieved
In his post-match interview after facing defeat in the men's doubles quarterfinal, Andy Murray revealed that there were things he would have liked to do differently in his career.
“I gave as much as I could to the career... There are obviously things that I look back on and wish that I could have done differently, but it’s been a tough time to win major titles in the sport with the players that were ahead of me," Andy Murray said.
However, he was proud of his achievements and hoped to receive rest.
"I’m proud of my achievements, my efforts and I’m looking forward to prolonged rest now," he added.
Murray was the first British man in 77 years to win the Wimbledon singles title. He won the Grasscourt Slam in 2013 and 2016. He also won the US Open in 2012. Murray is also the only player in tennis history to win the gold medal in the singles event at back-to-back Olympics (2012 and 2016).