London: Andy Murray has pulled out of third-place play-off with Cameron Norrie in the Battle of the Brits exhibition tournament, the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) said on Sunday.
"Andy Murray pulls out of third-place play-off with Cameron Norrie - he will be replaced by James Ward," a statement under 'highlights' section on lta.org.uk said. The match will still go ahead with James Ward taking Murray’s place, before Dan Evans takes on Kyle Edmund in the final.
Former world No 1 Murray returned to action after a seven-month injury layoff at the charity event organised by his brother Jamie this week.
The 33-year old three-time Grand Slam champion played four matches in five days, beating Liam Broady and Ward en route to the semi-finals where he lost to Dan Evans on Saturday.
Recently, Murray said that Novak Djokovic's Adria World Tour has given tennis a bad name for its lack of social distancing rules and the subsequent spurt of coronavirus cases that have come for those involved in it.
Murray has indicated his next event is likely to be the Citi Open in Washington, scheduled to start on August 14.
World no 1 Djokovic's coach and former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic is the latest to test positive for coronavirus after his participation in the ill-fated Adria World Tour. Ivanisevic made the announcement in an Instagram post on Friday.
Ivanisevic was the one who had announced the cancellation of the tour on June 22 after Grigor Dimitrov tested positive for coronavirus. In the ensuing days, a number of players came up with positive tests, including Djokovic himself.
The tournaments featured-packed crowds and parties for which Djokovic has come under significant criticism in recent days. Ivanisevic had however defended the Serbian on Wednesday.
