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Federer Murray Wimbledon 2015
Andy Murray, Roger Federer, Roland Garros, Tennis News

‘It makes sense’ – Andy Murray backs controversial Roger Federer decision


Andy Murray has backed Roger Federer over his Roland Garros withdrawal, saying it was ‘sensible’ considering his situation.

Federer was playing his first Grand Slam since January 2020 in Paris, and won his way through into the fourth round.

However, following his win over Dominik Koepfer on Saturday, Federer opted to withdraw from the tournament saying he needed to ‘listen to his body’ and protect his fitness ahead of Wimbledon.

That has drawn some criticism from fans, but Andy Murray has backed the 20-time Grand Slam champion.

“In Basketball, football, etc, when returning from injury players are given reduced minutes to build up their fitness,” Murray wrote on Twitter.

“In tennis you don’t have that luxury of just playing a set in first match then two sets the next etc and building up that way.

“I’d argue that it’s quite risky to play multiple four-hour matches in a row in your second tournament back in 18 months.

“So to me it makes sense to be reactive based on how your body feels, length of matches etc. Sensible decision from him.”


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Michael Graham, Tennishead.net Editor, has been a professional sports journalist for his whole career and is especially passionate about tennis. He's been the Editor of Tennishead.net for over 5 years and loves watching live tennis by visiting as many tournaments as possible. Michael specialises in writing in-depth features about the ATP & WTA tours.