Revealed: Andy Murray and Dan Evans face a NIGHTMARE path to men's doubles glory at Paris Olympics

Sir Andy Murray and Dan Evans are facing a nightmare route to the men's doubles final at the Paris Olympics with the Team GB pair set for a semi-final showdown with the tournament's top seeds.

The good news, however, is that the duo will avoid a Spanish dream team, consisting of Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz and 22-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal, until the final.

The draw comes after the Scot announced today that he would not be taking part in the singles contest, marking the end of his solo playing career. 

The two-time singles gold medallist had entered the 64-man draw which is due to take place at 10am on Thursday.

Sir Andy, 37, has now stated that he will withdraw in order to focus on playing doubles with Evans as he is still not fully fit after undergoing back surgery last month.

But the pair have a mountain to climb to win Olympic gold this summer as the draw, released today, poses fierce challenges around every corner.

First up, Sir Andy and Evans have been handed a tough opening doubles clash against Japanese pair Taro Daniel and Kei Nishikori.

The Team GB duo will face former Olympic bronze medalist and US Open finalist Nishikori with the Scot playing against his old rival for the first time since the quarter-final of the French Open seven years ago.

The two-time Wimbledon champion has fought it out against Nishikori, 34, 11 times over the course of his career, winning nine times. 

The Japanese star has won 12 career titles and an impressive 434 matches but this still pales in comparison with Sir Andy's glittering CV which boasts 46 career titles and 739 wins.

The Scot's biggest match against Nishikori came in the form of a semi-final victory en route to a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Sir Andy first played his old rival in 2011 and won his first three games against him. 

Should they negotiate a tough opening test, the duo will likely face a French duo of Arthur Fils and Ugo Humbert, who are seeded eighth in the competition.

Left-handed Humbert, 26, and Fils both made it to the fourth round of this year's Wimbledon with the latter already having two career titles to his name by the age of 20.

If they manage to spring an upset against the French pair, Sir Andy and Evans will continue their journey towards Olympic gold with a clash against an incredibly strong American duo of Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul.

Both made it all the way through to the quarter-finals at the All England Club this month with Fritz, 26, taking Italian Lorenzo Musetti to five sets in a marathon match.

Meanwhile, 27-year-old Paul's star continues to rise with the highly-rated American reaching the last four of the Australian Open last year.

Beat the Americans in the quarter-finals and the Team GB pair might start to think it's their year but their hopes might be dashed by the Italian number one seeds in the semis.

Simone Bolelli, 38, and Andrea Vavassori, 29, are an experienced doubles duo having made it to the final of both the Australian and French Open doubles events this year.

Sir Andy and Evans may cling onto the fact that the pair were unable to close out tournament wins in the final stages as a, small, source of hope.

And if the British partnership overcome the Italians, Sir Andy might come up against a familiar opponent in a final for the tennis romantics.

Spanish duo Alcaraz and Nadal, while not seeded, look like a formidable proposition on clay with the senior of the two having won a whopping 14 singles titles at the French Open.

The 38-year-old also holds the record for the longest single-surface set win streak in the Open Era with his 50 consecutive sets on clay between 2017 and 2018.

Sir Andy and Evans will have earned the champagne moment of a gold medal should they overcome a host of famous names and tennis legends on the way to Olympic glory - with the fact that it is the Scot's final tournament making it even more special.

The draw comes after Sir Andy announced on Tuesday that he was calling time on a heavily successful career as he arrived in Paris ahead of his fifth Olympic Games.

Alongside a picture of himself on the podium in Rio, Brazil, in 2016 he wrote: 'Arrived in Paris for my last ever tennis tournament @Olympics.

'Competing for Britain has been by far the most memorable weeks of my career and I'm extremely proud to get to do it one final time.'

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Sir Andy became the first man in history to retain his singles gold medal. 

This time around, he forms a strong Team GB roster with Evans, Draper and Norrie, who will all be hoping for a successful campaign which starts this Saturday.

Sir Andy won gold in London 2012 beating Roger Federer in the final and successfully defended his title four years later defeating Juan Martin del Potro.

The 37-year-old, who in 2013 ended a 77-year wait for a British men's singles champion at Wimbledon and won the trophy again in 2016, had previously said that he was unlikely to continue his career beyond this year.

The Scots hero received a star-studded, emotional farewell earlier this month at Wimbledon, the venue where he won two of his three major titles, following a first-round doubles defeat partnering his brother Jamie. 

Sir Andy, who had surgery on June 22 to remove a spinal cyst which was compressing his nerves and made him lose control and power in his right leg, decided he was not fit enough for the demands of singles competition at the All England Club.

His hopes of a final hurrah partnering fellow former U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu in mixed doubles at Wimbledon were dashed when she withdrew due to a wrist issue.

The tennis competition at the Olympics begins on July 27 and Sir Andy, who made his Olympic debut in Beijing 2008, will play in both singles and doubles alongside Dan Evans in his fifth and final Games.

He also has a mixed doubles silver from the London Games, where he partnered Laura Robson.

The former world number one resurrected his career after having hip-resurfacing surgery in 2019 but has struggled to make the latter stages of leading tournaments since and endured an ankle injury earlier this season in Miami.

'I'm ready to finish playing,' Sir Andy had said at Wimbledon. 'I don't want that to be the case. I would love to play forever.

'This year's been tough with the ankle, then obviously the back surgery, the hip. I'm ready to finish because I can't play to the level I would want to anymore.

'I know that it's time now. I'm ready for that.'

First Minister John Swinney was quick to heap praise on Sir Andu, who was born in Glasgow and grew up in Dunblane, Stirling, following his announcement.

In a post on X, Mr Swinney thanked the 37-year-old for 'an outstanding and inspiring career which has made a profound impact on so many'.

Sir Andy's mother, Judy, also commented in a post on X: '5th Olympics. Final tournament'.