Andy Murray unsure of retirement plans ahead of his final summer as a tennis player

Murray, 36, said last month that he “did not plan on playing much past this summer” and in an interview with The Times he explained why he cannot be more specific about when he hangs up his racket.

He said: “I would love the chance to play in another Olympics, but also genuinely only if I felt like there was a chance of winning a medal.

“I’m also very conscious that because of how amazing my experiences at the Olympics have been, I would want to be there by right and not just take one of the other guys’ spots, because it is a brilliant opportunity.

“We have top doubles players (Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski are ranked inside the world’s top 10) and also Jack (Draper), Cam (Norrie) and Evo (Dan Evans) in singles as well.”

Murray, a three-time grand slam winner, who held the number one spot in the men’s singles rankings for a total of 41 weeks in the same era as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, could focus on the doubles at the Paris Olympics, which will be played on his least favourite surface, clay.

He reached the quarter-finals in partnership with Salisbury at Tokyo 2020 and added: “When I played with Joe, I had the conversation beforehand with him that my feeling was there was a greater chance of me winning a medal in doubles than singles.”

Murray said he was “bored” of being questioned about when he will retire, saying: “It’s been happening since Wimbledon last year in most weeks. It’s something that I’ve had to talk about and entertain.

“Obviously at some stage the end will come. It’s not an easy decision to know exactly when that will be or when it should be.”

Andy Murray career statistics

• 2x Wimbledon champion (2013, 2016)
• 1x US Open champion (2012)
• 5x Australian Open runner-up (2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016)
• 1x French Open runner-up (2016)
• 2x Olympic champion (2012, 2016)
• 1x ATP Finals (2016)
• 1x Davis Cup (2015)
• 46x Career titles
• World number one in 2016 for a total of 41 weeks

Murray has lost 25 finals in his career of which 17 were against the Big Three (Djokovic 11, Federer 5, Rafael Nadal 1), while between August 2010 and August 2016 all of his , final losses came against one of the legendary trio.

In all but one of Murray's 11 Grand Slam finals, his opponent has been either Djokovic (7 times) or Federer (3 times) – the exception being the victory over Raonic at Wimbledon in 2016.

There is no doubt his Grand Slam title tally of three would have been much higher in another era but the fact that his 11 Grand Slam singles finals is still the ninth best total of the Open Era speaks volumnes.

He is in the top 10 for most match wins at three of the four Grand Slams (5th at the Australian Open with 51 wins, 6th at Wimbledon with 60 wins, and 9th at the US Open with 48 wins) while his 14 titles in Masters 1000 events going back to 1990 ranks him 5th overall.