Andy Murray has admitted that 2024 could be his last year as a professional tennis player but says much will depend on how he performs during the upcoming season.

Murray begins his campaign on Monday morning against second seed Grigor Dimitrov at the Brisbane International. It will be his 20th year on the ATP World Tour and the three-time Slam champion has revealed that the off-season has been tricky, having to deal with minor injuries and sickness. The 36-year-old, who is currently ranked 42 in the world, endured a tough end to 2023 with some painful first-round losses at major events and stated that his levels will have to improve if he is to keep playing beyond 2024.

“If I was in a situation like I was at the end of last year [2023], then I probably wouldn't go again,” Murray said. “But then if physically I'm doing well and my results are good and I'm playing well, then that's enjoyable and I could see myself still playing. We'll see how the year goes, see how the body holds up. If things are going well, I'd love to keep going. But if they're not, and I'm not enjoying it, it could be the last year, yes.”

Andy Murray practices in Brisbane ahead of his first-round match against Grigor Dimitrov.

The Scot has battled back from a major hip resurfacing operation to break back into the top 50 of men’s tennis and while that achievement in itself is quite remarkable, Murray has made it his goal of late to get his ranking into the top 32 and therefore be seeded for Slams. So far that has eluded him and he will be unseeded for the Australian Open, which kicks off in two weeks time. Five times a runner-up in Melbourne, Murray flew out to Australia earlier this week but had to deal with niggles and a sickness bug that has hampered his preparations a little.

“I had the shoulder injury before Davis Cup [in November] so I wasn't able to serve for a few weeks, and then there's obviously a gradual build-up to being able to serve full out,” Murray continued in an interview with BBC Sport. “And also I got quite sick literally just as I was leaving to go to Dubai [for training], so that made things a bit tricky – and I had a bruised meniscus in my knee which also restricted me from doing certain things. I was able to still practise and do lots of training but it's just there was certain stuff I wasn't able to do, like playing points and full-out sprinting and changes of direction. So it's not been that straightforward but the last 10 days or so I've managed to get more of that in. There are signs in practice that my level is good enough.

“I served particularly poorly in the latter part of the season and getting cheap points on my serve has been over my career a big part of my game. I'm hoping some of the improvements I made in the off-season will help me in those situations and obviously mentally I need to do a better job as well. But then, at the same time, a couple of years ago if someone had offered me that I'd been playing at top-40 level in the world when I had been struggling with my hip, I would have been happy with that. But it is hard, mentally, so I need to do a better job of putting things in perspective this year and be a little bit easier on myself.”

Andy Murray admits 2024 could be last year on tour - 'we'll see how it goes'