After Dubai defeat, Andy Murray says he's 'likely not going to play past this summer'

Andy Murray's retirement plans are becoming clearer. After the former world No. 1 hinted Monday that the end of his playing career is close, he revealed Wednesday that he's "likely not going to play past this summer" following a defeat to Frenchman Ugo Humbert in the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

"I get asked about it after every single match that I play, every single tournament that I play,"  the Scot told reporters after his 6-2, 6-4 loss, also saying he was "bored of the question" of when he'll hang up his racquets.

"I'm not going to talk more about that between now and whenever the time comes for me to stop. But yeah, I don't plan on playing much past this summer."

While Murray remained vague about when exactly his final tournament will be, he did confirm that he'd like to play Roland Garros "one more time," has goals of representing Great Britain at the Olympics for a fourth time, and has Wimbledon close to his heart. Murray has only played at the clay-court major once in the last six years, a first-round loss in 2020, but dubbed the tournament necessary clay-court practice for his Olympic goals.

"Last few years I've tried to give myself maybe better preparation for the grass season, but that also doesn't guarantee that you're going to play really well on the grass," he said.

"I've had experiences through my career where I didn't play the French Open in 2013 and I won Wimbledon. I also played the French Open and did really well in 2016. I don't think it makes a huge difference if you get an extra week's practice or so on the grass."

The champion in singles in both 2012 and 2016, Murray is the only tennis player. man or woman, to win the singles gold medal at the Olympics more than once.

"The Olympics, I'd love being part of that. It's been some of the best experiences of my career, being part of the British team," he continued. "When I got to carry the flag out in Rio, yeah, was amazing, amazing moment. I love sport, so to get the chance to do that for your country was really special.

"I like playing at Roland Garros. I mean, obviously, if you want to do well at the Olympics, you probably are going to have to play some tournaments and get matches in on the clay. Even if the Olympics was not after Wimbledon, I would still want to play it."

Murray's 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-3 win against Denis Shapovolov in Monday's first round was the 500th hard-court victory of his career, but he was frustrated in 90 minutes on court against Humbert, and never earned a break point opportunity against the Frenchman's serve. At one stage in the match, Murray was heard via the on-court microphones calling his performance "awful" and "horrific."

“Dear me, it’s bad. Dear me. Don’t have a clue what I’m doing," he said. "Oh god. Awful feelings. Awful feelings on a tennis court. Horrific.”

"He served well, didn't give me too many free points," Murray, currently ranked No. 67, later added. "He plays very offensive tennis. He's obviously playing extremely well the last six months or so. Not as many errors as before. It was also not the best show of how I played on my side of the court. I could have done a better job to make it harder for him."