Andy Murray: 'My future might not even involve tennis'

Andy Murray has arrived on Court Number 3 at Wimbledon, after a 40-minute delay. It’s not down to rain, but rather lunch. Sushi, not strawberries. As he takes up position for our shoot wearing a navy suit and a jumper the colour of the SW19 sky, there’s cause for relief on two counts.

One: he’s here and making time for us during his busiest period of the year, grass court season. Two: his life doesn’t run to the scary levels of clockwork suggested when his team sent through the schedule on Saturday, according to which he wasn’t due to eat until 3:50pm. Given that he’s come straight from a morning’s hard training, who can begrudge the two-time Wimbledon champion a few minutes to refuel?

“This was the first court I ever played on at Wimbledon,” says Murray to the spectators assembled: his agent, Telegraph’s stylist and Wimbledon representatives, as well as people from American Express - Murray is an ambassador - and even a gaggle of young groundsmen.

He first competed in 2005 as an 18-year-old, reaching the third round that year, going on to win the title in 2013 and 2016. He comes here a lot during the year, he tells me later off-court, but “I don’t get the goosebumps or butterflies every time. When the tournament is on, I do. It’s not the same place. There’s a different energy to it. I feel more aware of the history of the tournament.”

The past three years for Murray have been about trying to rediscover not just his world-class form after his hip replacement in 2019, but his love for the sport after experiencing pain so fierce that at times he couldn’t walk.

Murray is now injury-free and optimistic about the forthcoming Championships. Two weeks ago, he lost in Stuttgart after twice receiving treatment on court for abdominal pain during the final; today he is philosophical about the setbacks he has been served.

It’s been a frustrating journey with injury but it has helped him remember why he loves the game. “Yes, I want to win Grand Slams again and I’d love to be ranked number one in the world again – but that is not the only reason why I play and not why I started playing tennis. It’s not the reason any child starts playing a sport.”

He’s come a long way from being that kid who would come down from Dunblane in a mini-van to watch the tournament. One of the Big Four who have dominated the game for a decade, he has won Grand Slam titles in an era of tennis titans: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

As such he’s the only person allowed to stand on the hallowed grass today, which heightens the sense of his remote star quality. It’s a bit like observing a statue of a Greek god from behind a rope, which isn’t far off how he’s perceived in this south-west London suburb. Perhaps I’m allowing the 35-year-old’s reputation for being slightly dour to intimidate.

Holding the photographer’s light reflector, shielding myself from Murray’s direct gaze, I stage whisper: “Can you tell Andy to smile?” A sore point about his persona perhaps? However, he’s not above a joke at his own expense (see his Instagram) and acknowledges the funny side.

With time ticking, the interview starts as we walk back to the hospitality suite. His PR team have asked me to avoid anything “political”. Difficult, given that Wimbledon has just been stripped of its ranking points and there has been a mass shooting at a Texas high school, both subjects he might reasonably be asked to comment on – as a Wimbledon champion and a child of a town scarred by a terrible school massacre.

Murray has not always had an easy relationship with the press, although at the beginning of his career he was very open with the media. “They quite liked that I was different to Tim [Henman] and Greg [Rusedski] and I was just saying whatever came into my mind. Answering every question and not thinking about the consequences of what I said.”

Then a few things were taken the wrong way or out of context. “All of a sudden I lost a bit of trust in that relationship. I always felt stressed going into interviews and didn’t want to say the wrong thing. Now I feel a bit more comfortable with that side of things.”

What’s changed is that now if there are certain things he doesn’t want to talk about, he feels more comfortable avoiding them. “I know how to navigate around the question to not get myself in the headlines if I don’t want to be.”

Our interview today is supposed to be about Murray the man, the father of four; not just the godlike athlete, the UK’s most successful tennis player since Fred Perry. His 2019 documentary did a marvellous job of showing not only his grit, but his dry humour, explaining why Murray is oft-cited as the funniest man on the ATP tour.

It showed the team camaraderie that supports a singles star, as well as letting the world witness the cruel emotional toll of going from being the best player in the world, to facing the very real possibility of early retirement within the space of a season.

There’s little doubt that he’s become more comfortable sharing glimpses of his life with tennis fans. His Instagram now chronicles trips to Disneyland and shows him wearing dragon onesies, along with a fair amount of tennis. Fatherhood seems central to that change. He and his wife, Kim, have four children: Sophia, six, Edie, four, Teddy, two, and Lola, one.

Sleeping in his own bed is one of the perks of competing at Wimbledon and he will be one of the few competitors sitting down to a home-cooked meal, surrounded by his family and talking about things other than the day’s game. “I think the support structure around athletes is really important,” he says. “Now there’s more discussion around mental health and how being away from your friends and family for four months at a time does not necessarily mean peak performance. There’s a different way of looking at it that can be more successful.”

As soon as he leaves the venue during the tournament and heads the short distance home to Surbiton, he will find it just that little bit easier to switch off. While at other tournaments, staying in a hotel, he knows that as soon as he leaves his room he will bump into other players and coaches. “You’re talking about tennis the whole time.”

While some football and cricket teams draw strict boundaries around family time, Murray welcomes his being part of his career journey. “Without the support of my wife and my family I wouldn’t be able to still play. My wife is still encouraging me to keep training and try to achieve whatever it is that I want to achieve.” Women have been central to supporting Murray’s career.

What’s it like having a mum who is almost as famous as he is in the public eye? “My mum’s a really special person. She works far too hard and always has done. Since we were kids she never slept much. She’d wake up in the middle of the night doing emails and things.

“She loves her work and her tennis. She’s got an energy that I can’t match with my own children. But I guess she gets to go home after.” (A while after my interview, Judy will reveal that she was sexually assaulted in 2014. Andy, who had been unaware of the incident, will say he felt “angry and upset… That sort of behaviour shouldn’t be tolerated anywhere.”)

It was the same when he was growing up. Sporty parents meant he and brother Jamie’s early holidays were spent at the likes of Centre Parcs, playing not just tennis but golf, football and table tennis and doing gymnastics. It was the environment he grew up in that made him competitive. “I don’t believe you are born with someone being more competitive than the next person.” He started competing when he was six, and having an older brother meant that Andy would lose all the time, due to Jamie’s 15-month edge.

“He was stronger, smarter, better at everything. I think that I notice it a little bit with my kids. The second child hates losing, because that’s pretty much all she’s experienced.”

He’s in little doubt that his and Jamie’s sporting success is the result of his parents’ self-sacrifice. “There was no chance that two kids from Scotland would become top tennis players. My brother went away to school when he was 12. I can’t think of anything worse than letting my kids go away when they’re 12, or going to boarding school. I went to Spain when I was 15. And Jamie went to France when he was 16. It was this huge financial stress and sacrifice from our parents. So we were very, very lucky.”

Murray continues: “Lots of people talk about tennis parents who have become overbearing and too involved with their children, but I can completely understand how that happens. As a parent, when your kid is 10 years old, you spend all of your weekends and holidays driving around the country supporting them, and then when they become 18, and the governing bodies are trying to get involved, sometimes they don’t do a great job of supporting the parents. Some people just say, ‘I don’t want to deal with parents’.”

It feels like he’s talking about Emma Raducanu. “It’s incredibly difficult. I never experienced what she experienced, your life changing overnight...” He is empathetic though. “It’s impossible to know if everyone who is then involved with you is looking out for your best interests. You know that your family wants the best for you. The families are of course going to make mistakes, because it’s new to everybody.

“I would have worked with coaches when I was younger who were not necessarily the right people for me – and management companies, too. You question, ‘Do they want what’s best for you or do they want to make lots of money off you?’ It’s extremely difficult to navigate.”

For the record he would love to play doubles with Raducanu if the opportunity presented itself. “Unfortunately, outside of the Grand Slams there’s no real mixed doubles events.”

Murray’s two eldest children are playing tennis already, once a week for 45 minutes. He takes them along, but it’s more important to him at the moment that they enjoy sport and learn lessons about life and themselves rather than follow in his footsteps.

Murray is still a little way off becoming a full-time tennis dad, despite the recent challenges he’s faced. The past four months are the best he’s felt in years. “I’ve been able to practise and train and play. Fingers crossed I’m in a good place for the next few weeks.”

Before his hip issue, he’d never been a player plagued with injury. “I’d never had a muscle problem – although I’ll probably go and get one now,” he jokes.  He credits that to always maintaining his body conditioning and flexibility alongside his training. His advice to non-professionals is not to expect a physio or doctor to fix you. “Yes, a physio can help you feel better for a small amount of time, but what will stop the injury recurring is to do the physical conditioning and get your body stronger to deal with the demands of what you’re asking it to do.”

Before our shoot and interview he played for two hours and 20 minutes at Roehampton. He also saw his physio and did some gym work. He’s always pushing and challenging himself, but admits that during the past 20 minutes of practice he wasn’t happy with himself. “I was in a really bad mood when I got here,” he confesses. “I spoke to my coach and tomorrow that’s not happening. That’s not going to help me with the goal I want to achieve, which is, you know, to try and win Wimbledon."

The Murray I’ve met is still as driven and as competitive as he ever was, even if his body isn’t always compliant. At the age of 24 he could play a long match and then wake up the next morning and feel fine. “Now I do that and I feel terrible.”

Instead, he tries to give himself “the best chance to feel good”, which means getting a proper night’s sleep: “That’s number one for me.” He works with a nutritionist who stipulates the exact amount of protein and carbs that he needs to consume. “I make sure I’m hydrated properly and have the right amount of fuel.”

He did a lot of road-biking in lockdown, the first time since he was a kid, and got into trying to beat his PBs. “It doesn’t mean that every week you beat the time you did before. You shouldn’t always beat your score, but it’s about having a personal record and trying to improve on yourself. I’m not always looking at the person next door and how they can cycle, or how many Grand Slams they can win. I’ve always been in competition with myself.”

What’s different about him now, he says, is: “I don’t just live in a tennis bubble. I’m aware of what’s going on in the rest of the world.”

I do ask about the Uvalde shootings. He answers diplomatically: “What’s happened is obviously horrendous, and I don’t understand the reluctance to make changes in that country. Why don’t you try something new? It worked here after Dunblane. And if that doesn’t work then go back – but at least try and do something different.”

We’re almost out of time. Where is he with his life right now? He loves being a father, he loves playing golf. He likes art, although he can’t draw and paint as well as Kim can, much to his children’s disappointment.

“I have interests and things outside of tennis and I know that when I finally finish, everything will be fine. The world won’t end. Whereas maybe when I was 25, and maybe at times even at the beginning of the documentary in 2017, I was still a bit like that.”

Exercise will always be part of his life, at the very least to keep the muscles around his metal hip strong. “I will always maintain a great strength and conditioning programme; going to the gym four to five times a week for 45 minutes to an hour.”

He’s not particularly interested in the broadcasting side of things, pointing out that the best broadcasters often weren’t the very best players. “Many players don’t follow the tour that closely, they just watch the Grand Slams.”

So where will he be in 15 years time? “I’ve always been interested in coaching. There’s also a chance that I might not be involved in tennis anymore. I feel right now that I would always have some involvement in tennis, but there’s also times when I’ve been away from the sport and I’ve not watched any of the tournaments. That’s when I’m just at home with the kids. It’s pretty full on, that side of things.”

We’re out of time and there are more sponsorship commitments looming. There’s also a box of half-eaten sushi, a Championship to train for, kids to be cared for. It’s a crowded schedule, but Murray seems at peace with returning whatever life serves up next.  

Andy on getting kids into sport

Encouraging my children to do sport is something I see as a positive thing. It doesn’t necessarily mean tennis!

Team sports are great for kids to get involved in at a young age. It’s something my mum did really well when we grew up in Scotland. Jamie and I were part of a squad of young players who used to travel round on a minibus; we felt like we were part of a team.

Sport teaches lots of really good life lessons. There’s this whole thing around participation medals. I’m not a massive fan of that. But I do think there are lessons to be learnt from not winning all the time. In life we don’t win all of the time. It’s about how you respond to those setbacks. When you have lost or things haven’t quite gone your way, that’s something you can learn about. That and being a good team member. Even if you don’t play sports as an adult, that’s important to many jobs.

If you see one of your team mates has done something you learn that blaming them doesn’t help. Talking to them and being supportive is really important in those moments. That’s why I would like my kids to play sports:  because I want them to win Wimbledon.

I enjoy taking my kids to play tennis once a week and watching them do that. But it is a whole different sacrifice when your kids decide this is what they want to do professionally. All of a sudden you’re all in and that can mean a lot of sacrifice. My brother and I never appreciated how our parents were changing their plans to take us to events.

I bumped into a member here at Wimbledon and her kids are now nine and 10 and play tennis. I won’t name her, but she told me how weekends are now all about taking the kids to tennis events, just as her parents did for her.

And she was like, “I hate it. I want to go on holiday or relax on the weekends, but now it always clashes with tennis!”

Andy Murray is working with American Express to help tennis fans make unforgettable memories at the all-new Amex Fan Experience on site at the Championships, Wimbledon: wimbledon.com/americanexpress