My Andy Murray Blog. Reflections on a sporting icon

Andy Murray Blog - my reflections on a sporting icon

I first interviewed Andy Murray when he was about 15.  He’d recently won the prestigious Orange Bowl Tennis championship in Florida for the second time in his age group. He’d won it in 1999 – coached and mentored then by Mum Judy.  I remember, we only had six minutes for our whole sports bulletin on Reporting Scotland that day and there was a view that we didn’t have space to report on a junior event.  Football was, and is, king after all in Scotland.  However, we managed to squeeze it in that night and continued to keep a sort of sideways eye on his progress.  This was, after all, a teenager from Scotland playing tennis albeit with big dreams of becoming a professional and playing at Wimbledon. We wouldn’t hold our breathe!

He was back in Scotland after that second Miami victory when I headed to Craiglockhart in Edinburgh to interview him and his brother Jamie and Mum Judy.  As a I remember, he was about to head off to the tennis academy in Barcelona. He was a typical monosyllabic teenager, clearly wanting to be elsewhere rather than do any sort of interview.  Interviewing Judy I asked her a question that no mother of more than one child should ever be asked.  This was tantamount to asking which child she preferred.  “who do you think will be the better tennis player?”  As a mother of two sons I should’ve known better.  Judy replied that both would be successful in their own way because they both had talent, both were committed and both were extremely hard workers.

Over the years at BBC Scotland we continued to follow and cover Andy’s progress. I remember so many almost moments, almost ‘beating’ moments… .. he was plucky, he was brave, he never gave up, he ’emptied the bucket’. In the BBC sportsroom we always seemed to be grabbing our heads and me putting my hands over my face. He was close, so close, so many times and we were all with him along that roller coaster ride. I was watching him, not just as a sports journalist but as an avid Scotland sports fan. We loved Scottish sporting success and often it was hard to come by.  Andy was never an easy watch in those days. “oh no Andy…” seemed to be common place. Sometimes he put us so much through the mill it was hard to bear but he was getting closer. It was step by step – sometimes one backwards – sometimes two forward.  Then came his first ATP win, he progressed to his first Grand Slam final and then he won his first Grand Slam, the US Open – the first Brit to claim a Grand Slam title in 76 years. Yes, we knew the signs were there but you know we still couldn’t quite believe it. This was a Scot playing a minority sport, from a football obsessed nation that had made the big time on the world stage and in one of the most physically challenging individual sports on the planet. Not only that, but playing in a brutal era against three of the best tennis players ever. The big one though was still to conquer.

I screamed and shouted during that Wimbledon final in 2013.  It had been heartbreak for Andy at SW19 in 2012 and everyone remembers that distressing interview he did after losing out to Roger Federer. That made the victory in 2013 all the sweeter.  He’d already claimed the Olympic singles title.  He was on a roll. Andy Murray was very much now the man to beat. Don’t get me wrong when you’re rooting for someone you really care about, no matter who they are, or how talented they are, it’s still sport and anything can happen. It’s still a hard watch but post 2013 we were able to relax a bit and enjoy his tennis, his scrambling, his energy, his skill, his ability to get to the most awkward balls and somehow produce the most remarkable shots. We were now shaking our heads in admiration rather than desperation.

On to 2015 and I was lucky enough be the MC on the Davis Cup Celebration tour which stopped off in Dunblane with Andy and Jamie and Judy. Spending time with them all between events was a real privilege and also great fun. By this time, and after lots of practise I guess, Andy had found a way to get through interviews.  Away from the camera, he had time for everyone.  I lost count of the amount of autographs he signed that day and the number of witty and off the cuff moments that made us all smile.

I am passionate about all sport and am lucky enough to have experienced first hand some magical sporting moments throughout my career but as a proud Scot none of these come close to that moment when our Andy won Wimbledon in 2013.  Sir Andy Murray, thank you so much for what you have achieved, for the way you achieved it, for what you have done for tennis and for being such great ambassador for our country. 

 Let’s not think what next right now for Andy, let’s just celebrate the wonderful moments he has given us over the last 15 years.  It has been some ride.