Wimbledon 2018: Andy Murray ruled out on eve of the championship after deciding not to risk fitness

Two-time Wimbledon champion feels the best-of-five set format is too risky at this stage of his return

Andy Murray has conceded defeat in his fight to be fit for Wimbledon. The former world No 1, who returned to competition less than a fortnight ago after an 11-month absence because of a hip injury, announced on Sunday afternoon that he was withdrawing from the tournament.

“It’s with regret I’m withdrawing from Wimbledon,” Murray said in a statement released just 18 hours before the tournament was due to start. “I’ve made significant progress in practice and matches over the last 10 days, but after lengthy discussions with my team and with a heavy heart, we’ve decided that playing best-of-five-set matches might be a bit too soon in the recovery process. We did everything we could to try to be ready in time.

“I will start practising on the hard courts from tomorrow and continuing with my rehab and recovery and I’m looking forward to the US hard-court season. Thanks for all the messages of support and I’m excited to finally be back playing after so long out.”

After limping out of Wimbledon last summer, Murray has now made a late withdrawal from three of the last four Grand Slam tournaments. In August he pulled out of the US Open two days before the start of play at Flushing Meadows, in January he withdrew from the Australian Open after flying Down Under to prepare for the tournament and he has now pulled out of his home Grand Slam event two days after the draw was made.

The Scot had been handed a difficult draw here, with Benoit Paire – who had match points against Roger Federer in Halle recently – his first-round opponent and Denis Shapovalov and Juan Martin del Potro likely to follow. Murray's place will now go to Taiwan’s Jason Jung, a “lucky loser” from last week’s qualifying tournament.

Murray, who had surgery on his right hip in January, made his comeback two weeks ago at the Fever-Tree Championships at Queen’s Club, where he played well against Nick Kyrgios before losing a tight match in three sets over two and a half hours. He then won his first match at last week's Nature Valley International at Eastbourne, beating Stan Wawrinka in straight sets, but was then outplayed by Kyle Edmund, who replaced him as British No 1 earlier this year.

Although Murray had appeared to cope well physically with playing matches over the best-of-three sets, he has clearly decided that playing over the best-of-five sets so soon into his comeback would be a mistake.

Instead the Scot will focus on preparing for the American hard-court season. He has already entered the Washington tournament, which starts in four weeks’ time. That is followed by Masters Series tournaments in Toronto and Cincinnati, while the US Open begins on 27 August.