Andy Murray probably won’t be on Marseille Open tournament director Jean-Francois Caujolle’s Christmas card list this year, but it seems Caujolle has not called for the Scot’s suspension from the ATP Tour.
The storm, which it turns out might have only been swirling around inside a teacup, broke when Murray pulled out late last week, with a statement on his website saying the world No. 4 had withdrawn from the tournament.
“After playing in Australia for five weeks, Andy has taken an extra week off to recuperate and recover for the long season ahead,” the statement, dated February 12th, explained.
Marseille organisers were, as a result of the timing of Murray’s withdrawal, left with next to no time to ring around and find a replacement for their top seed. To make matters worse, the news of Murray’s planned absence from the tournament was supplemented by Juan Martin del Potro’s announcement that he too couldn’t make it to Marseille, as a result of a wrist injury that could keep the US Open champion away from the game for up to two months.
So when Caujolle was quoted in the Daily Express as saying "The No.1 seed of a tournament [which would have been Murray in this instance] should have a sense of responsibility. If he does not respect his commitments, he should be suspended by the ATP," it was understandable.
After all, Marseille had gone from having two of the world’s top five players in its draw to the world No. 8 assuming the top seeding. Not that Robin Soderling is any slouch, as his defeat of the in-form Nikolay Davydenko en route to the Rotterdam title last week would attest. And he’s joined in the draw by a legion of Frenchmen aiming to deliver a home champion for the tournament. But still.
It turns out now though, that Caujolle does not want to see Britain’s No. 1 player suspended from the tour. "I never said that he should be suspended, but it's true I was really disappointed because he was my top player,” Caujolle told Sky Sports News.
"One week before, to phone and say I am not coming would have been good. In that case I could have found another player, not as good as Andy, but made an offer to Marin Cilic or someone, but it was too late,” Caujolle is quoted as saying.
Of course, it didn’t help that this is the second year Murray has pulled out of Marseille either. In 2009 the Australian Open runner-up played Rotterdam the previous week, and missed the French tournament due to injury.
The main issue for the tournament director, it now seems, was the timing of the withdrawal. While it’s been inconvenient for the Marseille organisers, there’s every chance Murray left it so late to pull out because he was working to recover physically and mentally from his Australian Open performance. And in the end he simply ran out of time, despite the best of intentions.
Anyone who watched the final, and Murray’s emotional response to his defeat during the presentation ceremony, would know the loss hurt the Scot and could reasonably surmise it might be taking him some time to get over that one.
And just to make sure everyone is clear that there was no intention of imposing any sort of suspension on Murray for withdrawing from Marseille, or any reason to do so, the ATP have apparently issued a statement saying that the player did not break any rules by withdrawing.
Murray is now due to play his first tournament after the Australian Open in Dubai next week.
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