The Andy Murray farewell roadshow rolls on but tennis in Scotland won’t stop when he does.
The former world number one is yet to give a definitive date of when he plans to call it quits but, in the meantime, best catch him while you can. The grass court season is underway, with Murray in line to play at the Cinch Championships that start tomorrow at Queen’s Club before making what ought to be an emotionally charged final appearance at Wimbledon where he is also pencilled in to play doubles with brother, Jamie.
From there the two-time Olympics singles champion is expected to head to Paris for one final appearance in that event, while Murray also hasn’t ruled out playing in the US Open in August, the venue where he won the first of his three grand slams.
Nothing goes on forever, however, and whenever the 37-year-old decides to hang up the racket for good, it will change the nation’s relationship with the sport irrevocably. Tennis Scotland could not have asked for a better poster boy over the past two decades, Murray’s achievements boosting tennis’ profile like never before.
“Having a Scot at the top of world tennis for so many years has really made tennis much more visible,” confirms Blane Dodds, CEO of Tennis Scotland. “We’ve talked to a lot of people throughout the years about how much Andy has inspired them.
“We have to give him a big thanks for everything that he’s done over the past 15 to 20 years in raising the profile of tennis. I remember David Lloyd ribbing me one time after the Scotland football team hadn’t qualified for a tournament and I told him that we were a tennis country now!
“Andy is such a special talent but it’s his mentality and ambition from a young age that made him stand out. That’s something we want to capture and over the last few years within Scottish tennis what we’ve tried to do is raise our own ambition to match that.
“Andy has also taught our youngsters that, no matter where you come from, you can achieve so much if you’re focused, motivated and the desire is there. He’s shown you can come from a small village in a small country and reach the top and that message is hugely significant.”
Murray’s legacy can also be measured by his influence on Scottish tennis as a whole; the steadily rising participation numbers, the record-high levels of club membership (just under 80,000 up from 57,000 in 2018) and the opening of new facilities including six indoor courts at Oriam, the country’s sports performance centre, at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.
It is difficult to imagine Scotland ever producing another player of Murray’s calibre but nine Scots participated at Wimbledon last year, while up-and-coming talent has also benefited from an upscaled domestic tour. The hope is all these things will endure long after Murray has retired.
“Overall we’ve been delighted with what’s been going on,” adds Dodds. “Last year we took such a massive step forward with some big projects and other progress. We’ve had year-on-year growth in our main performance indicator, which is club membership, while the participation stats that we get from the LTA [Lawn Tennis Association] show that, not only are people joining our sport, but they’re playing more often as well.
“There’s that plus facility development to grow the capacity in terms of public park courts through the LTA park regeneration fund. We’ve had 92 park courts refurbished across Scotland which is a massive step forward, plus new indoor courts coming on board as well. So, it’s a very buoyant picture and we’re all very excited about the future.”
The decision to close the GB national tennis academy in Stirling after five years was an undoubted blow but Dodds believes that disappointment has been mitigated by the development of a new LTA-backed performance programme that he believes will help fill the void.
“We knew that it was a five-year contract and that it wasn’t going to be forever,” he adds. “But we’ve got a new funding partnership that will be replacing the academy. That will start in August and will be designed more to specifically benefit Scottish-based players. While we were wanting to raise the ambition and have Scots able to fight their way onto a British academy to be the best in Britain, the new investment will be more focused on Scottish-based players.
“So we’ll have a strengthened under-11 programme and an 11-14 Scottish player development centre programme. And the older age groups will also be catered for. And I don’t think we would have got this new funding in partnership if we hadn’t had the academy.”
Murray hasn’t spoken in huge length yet about his plans for life in retirement but there is a hope that his role as Scottish tennis’ greatest ambassador will continue in some capacity.
“Our door is always open and we have reached out to him with some ideas,” adds Dodds. “I’m sure we’ll pick them up again when he’s got a bit more time on his hands. We do hope we can work together to drive what is of interest to him as part of Andy’s own legacy. We’d be delighted to do that in the future when he’s ready.”
