(CNN) An emotional Andy Murray sobbed into his towel on the side of the court after a grueling victory over world No. 93 Marius Copil in Washington -- a game that finished at 3 a.m. Friday local time.
Hours later, tournament organizers confirmed on their website that Murray had withdrawn from Washington's Citi Open due to fatigue and would not play in the quarterfinals. He also will not compete in the Rogers Cup next week in Toronto, they said.
"I'm exhausted after playing so much over the past four days, having not competed on the hard courts for 18 months," Murray said in a statement. "I also need to be careful and to listen to my body as I come from a long-term injury."
Murray, who continues his return from hip surgery, overcame the Romanian 6-7 6-3 7-6 in his second three-set encounter in two days, having previously defeated fellow Briton Kyle Edmund.
"Just the emotions coming at the end of an extremely long day and a long match," Murray, 31, said of his reaction to the Copil match, after which he sat crying into his towel for several minutes.
The former world No. 1 had to dig deep after conceding a 5-0 advantage in the first-set tie break to lose 7-5, but Murray twice broke Copil in the second set to force a decider.
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The pair shared breaks in the third set, and as the clock ticked on later into the night, Murray eventually emerged victorious (7-4) in the final tie break -- at 3:01 a.m.
The three-time grand slam winner has slipped to world No. 832 during his injury rehab and is now chasing his first ATP title since March 2017.
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Murray would have faced Alex de Minaur in the quarterfinals in Washington. The Australian defeated South Korea's Hyeon Chung 6-2 4-6 6-2.