Cincinnati Open: Britain’s Andy Murray withdraws from Cincinnati Open with abdominal strain to protect US Open chances

Andy Murray has made the decision to withdraw from the Cincinnati Open after failing to recover sufficiently from an abdominal injury.

The former world No. 1 will now take more time to heal as he hopes to be fit in time for the US Open which begins on August 28.

But he has decided to pull out and will be replaced by a lucky loser.

“I had that operation a really long time ago. It has taken lots and lots of hard work and effort to get back to the top 40 in the world and I still feel like before the year’s out that I can push that even higher.

“I don’t think that this is like the limit for me. I do think that I can get myself much higher.”

After fighting back from years worth of persistent injuries, Murray seems to be closer to his best than ever and is able to compete with the best players in the world.

He has a 3-2 record against top-20 opponents in 2023 and managed to go all the way in matches against world No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas at Wimbledon and another top 10 opponent in Taylor Fritz.

“I was much happier, even though I lost the match against Fritz in Washington, in terms of the way that I played the match and approach to some of the shots in my game that I’ve been working on, usually it can take a little while,” he said.

“You can work on something for a couple of weeks usually, and for it to feel good straight away. But some of the stuff I’ve been working on sunk in pretty quick and that’s been really positive.”

Murray, ranked 36th in the world – his highest ranking since 2019 – won’t be seeded at the US Open after missing the action in Cincinnati.

Fellow Brit Dan Evans was scheduled to get his Cincinnati campaign underway against Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti in the first round on Monday but was unable to due to heavy rain.