Andy Murray has been confirmed as Team GB’s flagbearer for the Olympic Games opening ceremony in Rio on Friday.
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The Olympic Games have played a significant role in Murray’s career, with the world number two saying he had learned a lot from his first-round loss in Beijing in 2008, while winning singles gold in London 2012 helped push him to further success.
The three-time Grand Slam victor, the reigning Olympic singles champion, will follow in the footsteps of his friend Sir Chris Hoy when he leads Team GB into the Maracana Stadium, carrying the union flag.
“I am very proud to be selected as the Team GB Flag bearer for the opening ceremony on Friday”.
Murray, 29, spoke of his pride at being asked to lead out Team GB before an estimated global audience of three billion tomorrow.
He loves representing the country, he loves team competition, and I know that when he was at the Olympics in London – particularly that whole sense of being part of a much bigger thing than just the tennis – it was a massive, massive thing for him. “I’ll remember it for the rest of my life, that’s for sure”.
This time, the men’s event will be missing top 20 players Federer, Milos Raonic, Tomas Berdych, Dominic Thiem, Richard Gasquet, John Isner, Feliciano Lopez and Nick Kyrgios.
Tennis star Murray, the defending Olympic champion, will lead out the British team in what he describes as one of the proudest moments of his career.
Murray believes carrying the flag will in fact improve his chances of successfully defending his gold medal.
By turning the tables in the Olympics, Murray put himself in the conversation with Federer, Djokovic and Rafael Nadal and rode the momentum to his first major title at the U.S. Open later that summer.
He said he was hopeful Serbia’s Olympic team would eclipse their tally of four medals in London.
Andy Murray of Great Britain warms up during a practice session ahead of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games at the Olympic Tennis Centre on August 3, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. “I’m just trying to treat it as any other tournament and trying to prepare as best I can”, he said.
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He said: “The good thing is I’m not playing until Sunday”.
