Andy Murray close to massive rankings collapse as he prepares to return to grass

Andy Murray could be about to start his final grass court season and he does so with his ATP ranking going in the wrong direction.

Former world No 1 Murray has confirmed he expects to call time on his career at some point over the next few months and he could end his career ranked outside of the top 100 in the rankings.

Murray’s ranking is going backwards as the ranking points he collected from his ATP Challenger titles at Surbiton and Nottingham a year ago have dropped off his record.

Those erased ranking points have not been replaced after Murray suffered an ankle ligament problem at the Miami Open and has struggled to find wins since he made a return to action last month.

Now Murray is on the brink of being pushed outside of the top 100 of the ATP Rankings, with an early defeat in the grass court event in Stuttgart likely to confirm he will be out of the top 100 heading into the Queen’s Club Championships next week.

Murray may not be too concerned about his ranking at this stage of his story, as he will get entry into any tournament he chooses to play in the final phase of his career due to his status as a three-time Grand Slam champion and one of the game’s modern day greats.

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Yet the Scot will not enjoy the sight of his ranking going in the wrong direction and that may explain why he is calling time on his career.

Murray said last year that he would continue his career so long as he feels he is making progress, with these comments after his US Open defeat last August.

“I still enjoy everything that goes into playing at a high level,” said Murray after his defeat against Grigor Dimitrov.

“I enjoy the work. The training and trying to improve and trying to get better, I do still enjoy that.

“And that’s what keeps me going. If things change and I stop enjoying that or my results, my ranking and everything; like, if I start to go backwards in that respect and in a few months’ time I was ranked 60 in the world or whatever instead of moving up, things might change.

“If I want to have deep runs in these tournaments, I’m going to have to come up against players like Grigor or (Stefanos) Tsitsipas or whoever in Australia, played (Matteo) Berrettini in the first round and (Roberto) Bautista Agut in the third round. These are obviously top players. Obviously being seeded avoids them early.

“For me, it’s more about sort of the level you put out there and the performance and whether I was seeded or not here in the Top 32, then I don’t think that that guarantees that I’m going to have a deep run either.”

Murray has hinted he may play doubles with his brother Jamie at Wimbledon next month in what may be another box ticked off in his tennis wish list as it seem increasingly likely he is heading towards a farewell appearance at the All England Club.