Andy Murray issues defiant response to retirement questions – ‘Why should I stop?’

US Open: Djokovic praises Andy Murray for being a 'real fighter'

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Andy Murray has strongly hit back at critics questioning whether he still has the ability to compete at the top level. Murray has been battling back to full fitness over the past few years now following countless troubles with a hip injury.

He won his first singles match at a Grand Slam tournament since 2018 last year at the US Open, beating Yoshihito Nishioka in the first round.

But the former world No 1 would go on to lose to No 15 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in the following round – and his next four matches heading into 2021.

He’s dropped down to No 123 in the world rankings with growing questions on whether Murray can rediscover his best tennis.

However, the three-time Grand Slam champion showcased some of his trademark grit and determination in the Rotterdam Open first round to silence some of his critics.

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Murray was down a set before battling back to force a decider where he then immediately faced a 0-3 deficit.

The British tennis sensation though dug deep to win six games in a row to ultimately take the match and progress into the second round, where he will face world No 8 Andrey Rublev.

It’s set to be Murray’s toughest test since he defeated Alexander Zverev at the Cincinnati Masters last year.

That result against the German was proof of Murray’s ability to compete at the top and he even finds it amusing that he can still give the best in the world a run for their money given his injury troubles.

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“Why should I stop because I lost a match last week against someone [Egor Gerasimov] that people would expect me to win against?” Murray said.

“Tell me a good reason for why I should stop playing.

“I can still compete with the best players in the world with one hip. I think that’s quite amusing really.”

Murray opted to delete Instagram last week while he’s also no longer on Twitter, but he didn’t come off social media due to negative comments about his future in the sport.

Instead, the 33-year-old admits it was watching Netflix film ‘The Social Dilemma’ which led him to deleting his profiles online.

“I don’t have Twitter on my phone and I deleted Instagram last week,” he said.

“Not because of that [the retirement comments]. You see those things on Instagram and social media if you’re on it, obviously, and if you have the app on your phone.

“But I’d watched a while ago that Social Dilemma movie.

“I thought it was brilliant and then a couple of days after my match last week, I watched an interview with all the people that were responsible for making that and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m done.’”

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