Andy Murray invited former detained author Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who had previously watched his Wimbledon victory from an Iranian prison seven years ago, to be his special guest at Centre Court
Sir Andy Murray expressed his delight at the presence of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who witnessed his Wimbledon triumph from an Iranian prison in 2016, attending one of his matches on Centre Court this year. The British-Iranian dual national was released in March 2020 after being detained for six years.
Murray and Zaghari-Ratcliffe crossed paths in December of last year, where she shared her experience of watching his Wimbledon win while in solitary confinement. She described how it provided a "connection" to the outside world and served as an "escape" from her confinement.
During a press conference following Murray's recent victory, reporters discovered that he had personally invited Zaghari-Ratcliffe to witness his match against fellow Briton Ryan Peniston on Centre Court. Murray commented: "It was brilliant she was able to come along. I got to see her very briefly after the match. I spoke to her a while back and found it very emotional talking to her and hearing her story."
He further added: "She seemed happy that I got the win." When asked about his decision to invite Zaghari-Ratcliffe, he explained, "Well, first she hadn’t been to Wimbledon before and after I spoke with her and the story that she told me about watching my Wimbledon final (while) she was in a cell, I felt like I wanted to invite her to come along and watch the tennis in totally different circumstances and hopefully a much more enjoyable experience."
The meeting between Murray and Zaghari-Ratcliffe last year was highly emotive. Recalling her early days in detention, she shared: "When I was first arrested I was in Evin prison in solitary confinement, and for about five months they didn’t allow me to have any books or newspapers. There was a TV in the cell I was in but it was off the entire time, and then at some point they decided to let me use the TV but it only had two channels."
She went on to explainL "One of them was rubbish Iranian-made soap opera all the time, which was very low quality. The other one was a sports channel, which they thought, this was probably a way to just give them something but not quite something. Then I put it on, the first thing that was on was Wimbledon that day and that year, 2016. They had no idea what they had given me because I was always a big fan of you, but also there I was in solitary confinement watching the match you actually won in the end."
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