Andy Murray's legacy tarnished by Tennis Scotland says Judy Murray in scathing attack at local authorities

ATP
Sunday, 08 December 2024 at 12:00
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Andy Murray's mum Judy Murray has launched a scathing attack at the Scottish Government and Tennis Scotland after plans were shelved to build a £20million tennis centre.

With her great sons Andy and Jamie in mind who became huge sporting heroes not only locally but all over the UK, it was set to be built close to the family home of the Murray family in Dunblane.

Of course it also was heralded and helped in its bid by Judy who has spent over a decade trying to get it over the line until now when it has been shelved with Judy accusing the authorities of a lack of 'apathy and co-operation' and quipping that the legacy of her sons has been ruined.

She used the fact that in her view the legacy of her son Andy wasn't celebrated enough by the powers that be and is now ruined with this now not going ahead.

“I was encouraged to give it scale by Sport Scotland and the Lawn Tennis Association to become a centre of national significance.

“I would have to say I didn’t need that. I just wanted somewhere to work to develop other coaches and players.

“And I wanted it to be about community; to be open to everybody. Everything just took so long and got bigger and so the costs went up; we hit Covid and Brexit and had challenges with planning delays.

“I wondered how it can be so difficult to build something that is inherently good. We had set it up as a charity, so there was no commercial value to us in it whatsoever.”

“I worked my butt off to try to get it to where we got it to. But when the construction costs began to rise steeply we really needed all the stakeholders who had committed to step up to help us to fill that gap. And that didn’t happen.

“We actually had the outline planning permission and we were ready to go for the detailed planning permission.”

While Andy Murray forges a coaching career, Judy Murray hits out at a lack of a future for the next Andy Murray.
While Andy Murray forges a coaching career, Judy Murray hits out at a lack of a future for the next Andy Murray.

She also shunned Tennis Scotland and said they dropped the ball 'spectacularly' when it came to the career ending of Dunblane's greatest export.

“I don’t have any confidence in the leadership of Tennis Scotland and that’s a major reason for me not to get involved in anything else here.

“Even when it was the 10-year anniversary of Andy winning Wimbledon, they didn’t do anything, nor when he retired. But it’s never been about celebrating his achievements it was about using them to increase the profile of tennis in Scotland and the UK and reach communities that had previously been excluded.

“But what are they actually doing? They’ve now got around 20 full-time staff, but when they had a golden opportunity they dropped the ball spectacularly.”

Judy continued: "This was not to find another Andy. This was all about community sport. That’s absolutely where we are embedded. Everything that I did and the kids did was all through community sport in Dunblane.

“It was never about trying to turn them into champions. How they became champions I’m still not quite sure. But they’re a great example of anything’s possible. And I think they’re both great role models for Scottish kids."

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