Half of the men’s top 10 will be absent from Rio, with Tomas Berdych and Milos Raonic withdrawing because of fears over the Zika virus and Dominic Thiem also choosing to skip the event, while there are also question marks over Rafael Nadal’s fitness following a wrist injury.
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“The whole atmosphere surrounding an Olympics especially is different”.
Top-30 players Nick Kyrgios, Bernard Tomic, Richard Gasquet, John Isner, Sam Querrey and Feliciano Lopez are also absent.
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.
Murray, however, felt that it is still a pretty strong field because of the presence of top-20 players in the Summer Games.
Murray and world number one Novak Djokovic are the favourites to win gold in Rio.
It is anticipated more than 50 athletes will march behind Murray at the Maracana.
“We practised a little bit together”, said the Scot. “But I’m not going to get into that”, said the 29-year-old Serb who warmed up for the Games by claiming a 30th Masters title in Toronto on Sunday.
Reigning gold medalist Andy Murray could face fourth-seeded Kei Nishikori in the semifinals.
The number one British tennis player was displaying the flag to the media, standing beside Princess Anne, who is herself a former Olympian and now an International Olympic Committee member.
Murray said he had been assured of his health, with wife Kim and daughter Sophia deciding against attending.
“I was speechless, really”, he said about learning Tuesday night he had been chosen to lead Great Britain’s delegation. An opportunity I never thought I would get.
The Murray brothers won all three Davis Cup doubles rubber past year. It’s the proudest moment of my career, it’s inspiring to be able to do something like that.
“I am very proud to be selected as the Team GB flag bearer for the opening ceremony on Friday”, he said. “But here it’s totally different conditions, a different venue, a different country so I just try and treat it like any other tournament”.
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And Murray, so often close but just short of lifting the biggest titles, is already looking to the next challenge.
