Former US Open champion Andy Murray will not play singles in New York

Shortly after falling to Richard Gasquet, 6-4, 6-4, in his singles return at the Western & Southern Open on Monday in Cincinnati, Andy Murray announced he would not play singles at the upcoming US Open.

Speaking at his post-match press conference, Murray said, “I didn't want to take a wild card today because I just didn't know how I was going to feel after a match. I felt like I wanted to be fair for me to maybe try and get a couple of matches in before making a decision like that.”

According to Murray, US Open officials had set Monday as a deadline to accept the wild card. Though more time would have allowed him make a stronger determination, the former world No. 1 was clear his fitness likely wouldn’t have been up to par to proceed with playing a best-of-five tournament.

“Even if I was allowed to take a week or ten days to make that decision, there was no guarantee that I would have played anyway,” Murray said. “It was more likely that I was not going to, because although I did fine in the match today, physically, my legs felt quite heavy at the end of the match. That's probably not going to change a whole lot in a couple of weeks.”

Murray, the 2012 US Open champion, previously announced he would play singles in Zhuhai and Beijing. (Getty Images)

Murray still intends to play in the men's and mixed doubles events at Flushing Meadows, though is yet to confirm a partner for either event. He added there was a possibility of competing at next week’s ATP 250 event in Winston-Salem, NC.

“I'm obviously happy to be back playing. I thought it maybe would have changed my perspective completely on things, but I'm sitting here disappointed, which I think is probably a good thing,” reflected Murray. “I feel I can do better, and there are lots of things I can work on, so I will go away and do that and hopefully be better next time.”

The 32-year-old will look to regroup in the Cincinnati doubles event alongside Queen's Club champion partner Feliciano Lopez. The two drew fourth seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau.