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Murray set to miss French Open, whole of clay-court season

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Andy Murray will not play at the French Open and will instead focus on preparing for Wimbledon in the summer.

It is the second year running the 34-year-old Briton will miss Roland Garros which runs from 22 May until 5 June.

Murray will also sit out the entire clay-court season which starts at the Monte Carlo Masters on 9 April.

“I am not planning on playing through the clay, the past couple of years, the clay has made issues worse, I don’t want to take that risk,” he said.

Former world number one Murray – currently ranked 102 in the world – has been attempting to return to his former levels after major surgery in 2019 on a career-threatening hip problem.

Murray said he did not rule out playing on clay in the future.

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“It’s not that I wouldn’t potentially play on clay in the future,” he added. “Last year I almost missed Wimbledon and was close to not playing the grass season.

“I will still try to compete a bit during that period, I won’t do nothing, that’s my plan just now. I had a busy end of last year and the next couple of months. I won’t take any risks and hopefully get a good build-up to the grass season.”

In his last outing Murray lost in straight sets to Taro Daniel in the second round at the Australian Open and will play in the Rotterdam Open next week.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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