Judy Murray talked about her son Andy, his childhood and his relationship to his elder brother Jamie in an interesting interview to the Italian Sports Newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport.
A proud Judy Murray tweeted “Mission accomplished” to express her joy after her son’s rise to the top of the ATP Wprld Ranking following his win in the Paris Masters 1000 tournament.
“It was a great joy as reaching the top of the ranking is the reward for all the sacrifices, the committment and his consistency over the years. I don’t think anybody works any harder than he does and I think this is kind of just reward for his perseverance and his patience because he is such an incredible fighter. He’s come through to number one in an incredibly strong era. Federer, Nadal and Djokovic have been dominant for a number of years and he has always been in amongst it, and now he has managed to find his way to the top of it”.
Andy is the second member of the Murray’s family to reach the top of a tennis ranking, as his elder brother Jamie became the world number 1 in the doubles ranking during the first part of 2016 after winning the Australian Open doubles title teaming up with his partner Bruno Soares.
“Jamie and Andy have always been very competitive since they were children. They competed one against each other in a lot of sports, including tennis, golf, football and even wrestling. They have always been very active and tried every sport expect from skiing”.
“Andy was also a talented football player. When he was 14 years old, he was contacted by the Glasgow Rangers football team for a six-week period of training, but in the same period the British Under 14 tennis team called him for a series of tournaments in Italy. He had to make a choice and he opted for tennis”.
Judy admitted that it was difficult to combine her double role as mother and coach as Andy grew up.
“At the beginning it was not difficult to combine motherhood and my coach role. When Andy moved to Barcelona to train in the Sanchez-Casal Academy, it was a sacrifice to find the money necessary to fund his activity. Jamie also became a professional tennis player and I had to work hard to afford this. When you have two sons, you have to give them the same opportunities”.
The Murray brothers have contributed to make tennis a popular sport in Scotland by playing together for the British team, who won the Davis Cup title in 2015.
“Winning the Davis Cup for Great Britain last year was a huge success for the Murray family. It was great to see my sons playing together in Glasgow. They provded a great show in Scotland, where tennis was not very popular before. Andy and Jamie have a great relationship. Jamie is a very important figure in Andy’s life. It’s great they are not directly competing with each other. It certainly makes it a lot less stressful for me. Jamie got to number one in March this year and won two Grand Slams and got his OBE from the Queen a week ago. It’s been a really exciting 12 months for the whole family.”
Judy Murray said that Andy has become more motivated on the court after the birth of his daughter Sofia last February.
“Andy is in such a good shape just now. The baby was born at the beginning of the year. He is very relaxed and happy away from the court and probably more driven on it, so everything is good. There is getting there and the pressure of being there and trying to stay there because yoy are the one everyone is gunning for. He is at his strongest when he feels he has a point to prove. So fingers crossed he can stay there for a while”, said Judy Murray.
