Andy Murray has landed himself a blow to his chances of catching Novak Djokovic at the top of the tennis world rankings. The Wimbledon champion has decided to concentrate on Olympic preparation instead of making up the points on his Serbian rival.
Murray vs Djokovic has become the big rivalry in tennis but the Serb is still way out in front in terms of ranking points meaning the Brit will have to go someway to overhaul him despite bringing the deficit down from around 9000 points in March to it's current difference of less that 5000 points.
However the three time major winner has decided against defending his Rogers Cup title in Toronto instead focusing on his preparation for the Olympics in Brazil next month. Murray was due to defend his 1000 tour points from winning last year but will instead train in Majorca.
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Speaking about his decision to carry on not competing, after withdrawing from last week's Davis Cup quarter final, the world number two explained why he wouldn't be in Canada saying, "My body needs some recovery time after reaching the latter stages of tournaments over the past few months. I'm sorry to my fans in Toronto but I look forward to being back in Canada next year."
Obviously it's a blow for Murray's chances of reaching the coveted number one spot however Djokovic will need to play well to defend all his points as last year he lost in the final to Murray so he'll need to go far for it to have a significant impact.
Murray is over 4000 points clear of Roger Federer in third spot so has no reason to worry.
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The Olympics isn't worth any world ranking points but the Scot will be trying to win another gold medal, this time as reigning Olympic champion having beaten Federer at Wimbledon in the 2012 games.
(via The Times)
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Tennis, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, 2016 Olympics