Andy Murray makes fresh retirement vow with Brit in difficult spell

Andy Murray has declared “I'm not going to stop” before he bids to end his long losing streak at the Qatar Open. And the Scot, who turns 37 in May, insisted only he will decide when to call an end to his glittering career. The world No.50 has lost in the first round of all four of his events this season and has not won since October.

Before his first match of the season in Brisbane, Murray admitted this “could be” his last year, to see every defeat now followed by questions about his retirement. But the three-time Major champion, who is continuing his career with a metal hip, said: "When I was in my early 20s, I would have mainly young fans that would come up to you and ask for autographs, now I get more older people, whose bodies are falling apart.

"They are kind of like: 'It's great that you keep going, it's inspired me to get out and keep training', so the demographic has changed a little bit. It's nice, I can do whatever I want. I don't have to do what fans, journalists or anyone is telling me to do.

“Qualifying for all these tournaments on my right, on my ranking and all the matches that I've won, I want to keep playing just now. So I'm not going to stop."

He has a great chance to end the worst run of his career against French qualifier Alexandre Muller in his opening round match in Qatar. Murray, who could face top seed Andrey Rublev in the last eight, added: "Tennis-wise it hasn't been a great start to the year.

“I've never experienced a period like this as a professional. It's been difficult, a new experience for me [which] is not the nicest, but good to experience new things and try and learn from them. I've never really experienced playing really well in practice and not being able to translate it to a match court before, it was always the opposite for me," said the two-time Wimbledon winner.

"I was never a great practice player, I [never] used to win practice matches, exhibition matches; it's been the complete opposite for me recently. I know there's better tennis in me than I'm showing just now, but I'm hoping I can turn it around."

“Physically, I'm not expecting to feel how I did when I was 20, so it's hard when you get to your mid to late 30s to stay at the level required to beat the best players.

“Certainly, tennis-wise I know I can play a lot better than I have been.”