Andy Murray is through to the men’s doubles quarter-finals in his retirement tournament at the Olympics.
Tommy Paul has shared his wish to see Andy Murray copy Roger Federer after he retires. The British former world No. 1 is playing his last tournament at the Olympics, where he is through to the men’s doubles quarter-final with Dan Evans.
They will now face the American duo of Paul and Taylor Fritz. Win that match and they guarantee themselves a shot at playing for a medal in Murray’s last dance.
But Paul wants to be the one to retire the two-time gold medallist before he can get to that stage.
Paul and Fritz saw off the Dutch pairing of Robin Haase and Jean-Julien Rojer in straight sets on Wednesday to set up a clash with the Brits. Murray and Evans booked their spot in the last eight on Tuesday night, saving two match points to beat Belgians Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen.
It was another epic escape for the British partners after they saved five consecutive match points in the first round. But Paul wants to make sure there’s not another miracle comeback in the quarters.
“Hopefully if we get match points we will win the match point. That is the goal if we play them,” he laughed. “No, it’s been an awesome run, hopefully it comes to an end for them but it’s been fun to watch, definitely.”
The world No. 13 – who is still alive in the singles tournament in Paris – knows that it would be special to be part of Murray’s farewell story. And he wants it to be because he and Fritz are the ones ending the 37-year-old’s career.
Paul continued: “Well hopefully we retire him. He’s one of the best dudes in the locker room and a great guy overall and obviously an unbelievable player and has had an unbelievable career.”
But the 27-year-old will still be sorry to see Murray hang it up and he’s hoping that the former world No. 1 will come back to visit tournaments like fellow retired champion Roger Federer. “Win or lose it’s going to be sad for me not seeing him on tour anymore. Hopefully the British summer we’ll see a bunch of him, hopefully he’ll travel around like Roger. Roger is still everywhere,” Paul added.
Meanwhile, Murray is hoping that he can redeem himself after losing in the quarter-final of the men’s doubles event at the Tokyo Games with Joe Salisbury three years ago. After another epic victory on Tuesday, he said: “The next match is an important one.
“If we can find a way to get through that one then you get a couple of chances at it [a medal]. But I lost with Joe in the quarters in Tokyo after being a set and a break up and that was really disappointing and we were playing extremely well too. So doubles matches and the way the scoring system is and the way the teams play now, the margins are just, it is so fine that anything can happen really. But we’ve definitely got a chance of getting through to the semis.”
