Tokyo 2020 Olympics: Andy Murray pulls out of men’s singles as Ash Barty suffers defeat

Andy Murray shows off his room in Tokyo Olympic village

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Andy Murray has pulled out of the men’s singles tennis at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics – ending his bid for a third straight gold medal in the competition. And there was a shock on day two of the Games as Wimbledon champion Ashleigh Barty was convincingly beaten by Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo.

Murray, who won gold at the London 2012 Olympics and in Rio de Janeiro five years ago, was due to get his singles campaign underway against Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime on Sunday.

But the 34-year-old withdrew with a thigh complaint after being advised by Team GB doctors not to compete in both the singles and doubles.

He and Joe Salisbury got their doubles competition off to a great start on Saturday, beating fancied French second seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut to reach the second round.

And Murray has decided to prioritise their joint bid for gold over personal glory.

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“I am really disappointed at having to withdraw but the medical staff have advised me against playing in both events,” Murray said in a statement.

“I have made the difficult decision to withdraw from the singles and focus on playing doubles with Joe.”

Murray has been replaced in the singles by Australia’s Max Purcell – whose compatriot Barty crashed out in one of the biggest shocks of the Games so far.

Just weeks after her Wimbledon triumph, the world number one lost 6-4 6-3 – leaving the host nation’s Naomi Osaka as the highest-ranked player left in the women’s draw.

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“It was a tough day, a disappointing day. I can’t lie about that,” Barty told the Seven Network after her defeat to Sorribes Tormo, in which the Australian made 55 unforced errors to her opponent’s 13

“It was just loose. I knew I wanted to try and take the match on today and it was going to be a fine line of pushing too hard and not getting stuck into patterns I didn’t want to get stuck in.

“[I was] just too erratic today, I wasn’t able to make enough balls.”

Meanwhile, Murray’s exit leaves Liam Broady as the sole Briton remaining in the singles, following Heather Watson’s first-round defeat on Saturday.

Broady battled past Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo 7-5 6-7 (4-7) 6-2 in three hours three minutes to set up a seond-round meeting with Wimbledon semi-finalist Hubert Hurkacz of Poland.

Elsewhere in the Games on Sunday, taekwondo star Jade Jones saw her bid for a third successive Olympic gold ended by a first-round defeat to Kimia Alizadeh of the Olympic Refugee Team.

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