Murray exit is backed by Davis Cup captain

Murray struggled through his first match at the season-ending O2 event against David Ferrer with a groin injury, but yesterday decided the risk of playing his final two round-robin matches would be too great. The world No 3 will now take time to rest the problem before heading out to Miami for pre-season training and then to Australia.

Murray confirmed earlier this week he will begin his season at the Brisbane International, starting on 1 January, instead of the Hopman Cup in preparation for the Australian Open. Smith, who is also the head of men’s and women’s tennis at the Lawn Tennis Association, said of Murray: “Like everyone else I listened to his comments yesterday and you could see he was very disappointed. He’s had an amazing year in the slams, he’s in good form and that’s why you work so hard to get to these big events. It’s a wonderful event for him, in London with his home fans. But it sounds like it’s the right decision because, once you get a little niggle, it can turn into something worse and worse by playing through.

“We think there’s a long gap until the next slam, but it’s really not if you want to make some significant gains in your tennis or your physical side. He’s got to look after his body. He’s had a tremendous year and now it’s a question of building back up for what we really hope will be a fantastic 2012 for him.”

It was an unfortunate end to undoubtedly the best season of Murray’s career, the Scot having won five titles and reached the Australian Open final, as well as the last four at the other three Grand Slams. He had been optimistic about winning in front of his home fans in London after falling short for the past two years – first when he narrowly failed to make the semi-finals in 2009 before losing an epic last-four clash to Rafael Nadal 12 months ago.

Murray said: “Because of the event that it is, you want to go out having given everything, like last year’s match. Even the year before, I think it was 7-6 in the third against [Fernando] Verdasco. It was a really long match.

“It’s disappointing to finish the year that way, having lost or not qualified for the semis or the final or whatever. But not being able to play is what’s most frustrating. Because you work the whole year to be part of this group of players.”

Murray admitted it may have been a mistake to enter the tournament in Basel earlier this month after winning three titles in successive weeks in Asia and vowed to learn lessons.

He said: “If you look at the other guys that played loads of matches this year, Roger [Federer] and Novak [Djokovic] both took a large break after the US Open. Rafa [Nadal] took one after Asia. Maybe me trying to get ready for Basel was too soon.

“That’s something I probably need to learn from because I had played a lot of matches.”