{"id":24585,"date":"2021-12-23T09:48:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T14:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=24585"},"modified":"2021-12-27T09:50:46","modified_gmt":"2021-12-27T14:50:46","slug":"andy-murray-accepts-wild-card-for-next-months-australia-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=24585","title":{"rendered":"Andy Murray Accepts Wild Card For Next Month&#8217;s Australia Open"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"634\" height=\"360\" src=\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/2-64481141.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-24586\" srcset=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/2-64481141.png 634w, https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/2-64481141-300x170.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 634px) 100vw, 634px\" \/><figcaption><em>Murray lost to Roberto Bautista Agut in the first round in 2019, shortly after revealing he was set to undergo hip surgery (PA Images)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Andy Murray will return to the Australian Open next month, three years after playing what he feared would be the final match of his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 34-year-old has accepted a wild card for the tournament as he looks to extend a record which has seen him finish runner-up in Melbourne five times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Murray lost to Roberto Bautista Agut in the first round in 2019, shortly after revealing he was set to undergo hip surgery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After the match Murray said: \u201cIt\u2019s an amazing place to play tennis. If it was my last match, it was an amazing way to end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Murray withdrew from the tournament in 2020 and earlier this year he also had to pull out at the last minute after testing positive for coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However Murray has continued to battle back towards the top 100, most notably in pushing Stefanos Tsitsipas to five sets in a US Open first-round defeat in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said: \u201cAs a five-time finalist, Andy Murray has had so many memorable moments at the Australian Open<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s renowned for his fighting spirit, passion and love of the game and I\u2019m delighted to welcome him back in Melbourne in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHis heroic exploits have made him a firm fan favorite here at Melbourne Park.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-24585\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=24585&amp;share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-24585\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=24585&amp;share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-google-plus-1\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-google-24585\" class=\"share-google-plus-1 sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=24585&amp;share=google-plus-1\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Google+\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=24585\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to print (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andy Murray will return to the Australian Open next month, three years after playing what he feared would be the final match of his career. The 34-year-old has accepted a wild card for the tournament as he looks to extend&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-24585\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=24585&amp;share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-24585\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=24585&amp;share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-google-plus-1\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-google-24585\" class=\"share-google-plus-1 sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=24585&amp;share=google-plus-1\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Google+\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=24585\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to print (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24586,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24585"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24585"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24587,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24585\/revisions\/24587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}