Andy Murray sparks retirement speculation in Dubai - "It gets harder and harder... I probably don't have too long left"

Andy Murray has sparked speculation about his retirement after his recent win at the Dubai Tennis Championships.

The Brit was on a six-match losing streak before he won at the Qatar Open against Alexandre Muller. He lost to Jakub Mensik the following round, with all three sets going to tiebreaks.

Murray bounced back from the defeat against the eventual runner-up in Doha with a win against Denis Shapovalov in the first round in Dubai on Monday (Feb. 26). During the match against Mensik, he appeared to tell his box 'this game is not for me any more'.

Murray was asked to address those comments after his win against Shapovalov.

"People read a lot into what I say on the court sometimes, it's not always rational. Yeah, but everyone asks me about it every time, anyways, so yeah," Andy Murray said during his on-court interview.

Recently, there has been a lot of talk surrounding the Brit's eventual retirement plans. He has come out and said multiple times that he still wants to compete and doesn't plan on retiring anytime soon. But after his win against Shapovalov, the 36-year-old indicated that he may only play the sport for just a few more months.

"I obviously love competing and still love the game but it gets obviously harder and harder, the older you get, to compete with the young guys and keep your body fit and fresh, so yeah, not easy. I probably don't have too long left. I'll do the best I can these last few months," he added.

Murray edged out Shapovalov, a former World No. 10, 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-3. He did so despite serving 12 fewer aces than the Canadian's 15 and registering a lower win percentage from his first and second serves.

Murray did, however, get 69% of his first serves in as compared to the 24-year-old's 56%, and he also made just one double fault as compared to his opponent's 10.

---

Andy Murray comments on his historic 500th hard court win

Andy Murray's win against Denis Shapovalov was also the two-time Wimbledon champion's 500th win on hard courts. With this, he joined an exclusive club of players which includes Roger Federer (783), Novak Djokovic (700), Andre Agassi (592), and Rafael Nadal (518).

"Obviously hard courts have been a great surface for me over the years and 500 is a lot of matches. So yeah, I'm very proud of that. It's great to get that before I'm done", Andy Murray said after beating the Canadian (via BBC).

Out of Murray's 46 singles titles, 34 have come on hard courts, including the 2012 US Open. He also won the event in Dubai in 2017 and was a losing finalist in the 2012 edition.

Murray will now face either Ugo Humbert or Gael Monfils in the second round in Dubai.