Murray to make decision after injury assessment

Andy Murray is expected to decide after practice this afternoon whether to pull out of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London.

The world number three picked up a groin injury in practice last week and struggled through a 6-4 7-5 defeat by David Ferrer before revealing he was considering his future in the tournament.

Murray does not have to make a decision until just before the scheduled start of his second round-robin match against Tomas Berdych tomorrow afternoon, but he will assess his condition in a practice session at the O2 today.

If the Scot feels the injury, which appeared to affect him particularly on his favoured backhand yesterday, is too inhibiting then he is likely to bring a premature end to his season and allow Serb Janko Tipsarevic to take his place.

The round-robin format of the tournament means Murray can still reach the semi-finals despite yesterday’s defeat, but he is now a firm outsider and will probably have to beat both Berdych and world number one Novak Djokovic, a tough task even if he was fully fit.

Murray, who has losing records against both players, is renowned for his reluctance to pull out of tournaments and the last time he withdrew midway through an event was in Dubai nearly three years ago.