By: Lauren Lynch

Photo Credit: Andy Kentla

(November 22, 2011) Andy Murray announced on Tuesday at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals that he would have to pull out of the tournament due to a right groin strain that he had incurred before London while training on court. This will give alternate Janko Tipsarevic a chance at competing in his place for his debut at the year-end event.

“The thing is, I was told to take a week to 10 days completely off. Again, I couldn't do that,” the Scot admitted that he didn’t take the time off he needed to heal, saying, “So each day I was sort of hitting up and down the middle of the court, not moving. Obviously, you can get away with doing that. I tried to play points. I played with the Bryan brothers on Saturday. I felt okay. I went to do some serve movement work afterwards to test it out. I had to stop when I was doing that. Then on Sunday I played some points with Tipsarevic. I played some points with him. Didn't feel good. Stopped the practice early. Then was kind of, yeah, just disappointed because I knew in my head I wasn't ready to play and wasn't right to play.”

He is hoping to make a return in 2012 for the tournament in Brisbane.

“Brisbane wanted me to play, and I explained my situation to them and said that, you know, ideally I would like to play that week but it depends on how my body is, when I start training, so forth. They understood that, respected that. That was why I decided to play there. But now because the last two weeks it's pretty much been rest for me, you know, I should be fine to play there start of the year. “

He expressed his frustration of not getting to play in front of his home crowd.

“That's why it's disappointing. It's just a really difficult decision to make because it's one of the best tournaments in the year to play and it's something that you also work all year to play here, as well, “ he said. “That's disappointing to finish the year that way, maybe 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, like I said, you work the whole year to be part of this group of players.”