Andy Murray. The greatest British tennis player of all time. It’s as simple as that. Today he announced his retirement and we say farewell to a great. The two-time Wimbledon Champion today decided to announce that he will be hanging up his racquet after Wimbledon 2019 at the latest.

He had a great career, winning Wimbledon and Olympic Gold twice, as well as the US Open and the ATP World Tour Finals once, He was also a part of the 2015 British team that won the Davis Cup. And he did all of this in the same era that gave us Federer, Nadal and Djokovic.

Between the four of them, they gave us some great matches and great finals, and it will be a great loss for the sport having him retire. Here is hoping that they Murray can serve up one last great final against one of them at this years Wimbledon and he can go out on a high.

Regardless though, he will go down as one the greats of his sport. And we should count ourselves lucky that we were able to witness the four of them play at the same time.

Tributes have been flying in all day, and you can see them below:

Unfortunately for Andy Murray, he has suffered from quite a few injuries over the last few years, and sadly this is the reason behind his choice to retire.  His announcement this morning left him in tears as he discussed this. Its one of the saddest things in sport, when an injury ends a career and you can’t not feel sorry for him.

Luckily for Andy, he has already had a great career and fulfilled everything he could have dreamed of as a young boy. He was World Number One and won the greatest and most prestigious Tennis grand-slam of all-time Wimbledon twice. It doesn’t get much better than that. Not all sportsman who have to retire due to injuries are as lucky as Andy, for some, their careers haven’t even started yet and don’t get to fulfil their potential. Andy Murray had lots of potential, and boy did he live up to it.

You can watch his tearful announcement below:

Featured Image by Marianne Bevis. Displayed under Creative Commons.