Summary
Tennis coach and former top-flight player Judy Murray knows the pitfalls of sporting aspiration . . . and of being the mum behind the star. She talks to Stephen Phelan
WHEN Andy Murray beat the world's No 1 tennis player Roger Federer in straight sets at the Cincinnati Masters 10 days ago, his mother wasn't cheering him on from the stands. She didn't even see the match on television. Apparently, Judy Murray finds it difficult to watch her son at work these days, as she is explaining to a well- wisher today when I turn up to meet her at Dunblane Golf Club. Judy Murray was a tennis talent in her own right but has watched with delight as her sons "My guts get tied up in knots, " she is saying to a man in the car park. "I'm always afraid I'll have a coronary." Murray looks too lean to be worrying about heart attacks. She was a pretty serious tennis player in her own youth, winning 64 Scottish titles, representing the UK at the World Student Games and sharing the cup for the ladies doubles event at the British hard-court championships in 1981. Later, she served for almost a decade as Scotland's national coach.See the full content of this document
Extract
Mother Love
Now her 19-year-old son Andy is about to compete at the US Open in New York under the super-trained eye of his new coach Brad Gilbert, while his brother Jamie, at 20, is highly ranked on the international doubles circuit. Once inside the club lounge with a cup of tea, Murray speaks for the most part with the unreflective matter-of-factness common to athletes. "Tennis, " she says, "is what my children want to do, and I'm just like any other parent in supporting them."
And even if the vicarious nervousness she was just describing seems perfectly natural in ...See the full content of this document
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