All England Club reveal plan to bid farewell to two-time champion Andy Murray if this summer's Wimbledon is his last

The All England Club have revealed they have a plan in place to bid farewell to Andy Murray if he does confirm this will be his last appearance at Wimbledon.

The 37-year-old’s retirement plans remain uncertain but the two-time Wimbledon champion has previously said he is unlikely to play on ‘much beyond this summer’.

‘We have certainly got plans in place and we’re ready,’ said All England Club CEO Sally Bolton. ‘But ultimately it is Andy’s decision.

‘We have plans that are very adaptable. It is for Andy to make the decision for when we trigger those plans.’

Murray confirmed earlier this week that he and brother Jamie would play doubles together at Wimbledon this year for the first time. If he loses early in the singles, Andy may see bowing out with his brother as a fitting way to end his Wimbledon story.

At the annual media briefing, the All England Club confirmed Mail Sport’s story from Wednesday that total prizemoney will be increased to £50million. 

The men’s and women’s singles champions will earn £2.7m each – a 15 per cent increase on last year. First-round losers will be paid £60,000, up £5,000 on 2023.

Wimbledon also announced that the controversial Centre Court start time of 1.30pm would remain in place. 

Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray were among the players to last year call for an earlier start, in order to avoid having to play late matches under the roof. ‘We’re still confident we can achieve what we need to do in that period of time,’ said Bolton. ‘We’ve looked long and hard at the data around length of matches.’