Can Judy help Andy win Wimbledon?
For the chance of seeing one of Britain’s most controversial, ‘pushy’, much-maligned mothers, you need to be inside Centre Court this summer (or, failing that, in front of a television set as the director and his cameramen know exactly where to find her). When Andy Murray is out there on the grass and in the arc-lights, his guests will include his mother Judy, who for years has received hate mail from the lunatic fringe of the British tennis public – she’s been called the Tiger Mum of British tennis, and also much worse. Whether fairly or unfairly, some women acquire a reputation for pushiness. Just ask Mrs Murray.
‘I know I’m not hugely popular,’ said Judy Murray, who in her youth was the dominant force in Scottish women’s tennis – the tartan Chris Evert, if you like – with more than 60 girls’ and ladies’ titles. To scroll through some of the comments about her online is to be shocked by the vitriol.
There can be no doubt that she has been treated unfairly, sometimes extremely unfairly. A national newspaper once asked on the front page, puffing a feature inside, whether she was The Pushiest Mother in Britain. The accusation was that her tennis elbows were sharpened to the point that they could take Andy’s opponents’ eyes out. That can’t have been pleasant for her, especially as she was writing a column for the paper at the time.
The former Wimbledon champion Boris Becker once pondered aloud whether Judy was smothering her youngest son to the extent that she was preventing him from making the most of his talent – in some quarters this was reported as Becker calling him ‘a mummy’s boy’ – and she retorted that the German knew nothing about her family.
No one has ever properly explained how her supposed control-freakery is possible, given that she lives in Scotland (and her sons don’t), while she has many other commitments, and only travels to a few tournaments each year. Does anyone seriously imagine that Ivan Lendl would have taken the job as Murray’s coach if he was going to have to put up with constant interference from the player’s mother? It’s not as if Judy and Andy only talk about tennis together – of course, that comes up in conversation, but they have normal mother and son chats, and paparazzi shots of the two showed them shopping for an ironing board and multipacks of loo roll. Plus, Andy once sent a Christmas card to his mother in which he thanked her for ‘always believing in me, always supporting me, always letting me make my own decisions’.
Now the snobs don’t like Judy Murray much. The problem they have is that she isn’t Jane Henman. As I argued in my biography of Andy Murray, it often seems as though Judy’s greatest crime is the fact she’s not Tim Henman’s mother – prim, still, silent and in the background. That she is not a Home Counties tennis mum, cloaked in Laura Ashley and upper-middle-class discretion. Indeed, Judy once had difficulty gaining access to the Members’ Enclosure at the All England Club because she was wearing jeans, an experience she shared with the readers of her column. No one could accuse her of being an establishment toady.
Judy has wondered in the past whether there is sexism at play on the international tennis scene, but she should wonder no more, as there plainly is. Tennis is used to fathers who take an interest in their children’s playing careers, but mums somehow make them uncomfortable.
There’s not a great deal that Judy Murray can do about that. But perhaps this could be the summer when the Wimbledon crowds show greater appreciation of Judy’s achievement of raising two boys who have gone on to be grand slam champions, with her eldest son Jamie winning the mixed doubles title at the 2007 Wimbledon Championships and Andy scoring a singles major at last season’s US Open. The public have shown that they are more than capable of changing their opinion of someone. Just look at what happened to her son Andy, who felt as though he ‘reconnected’ with the public last summer, thanks to his tears after losing the Wimbledon final, and then his victories at the Olympics and then in New York. Could something similar happen to Judy this summer if her son ends up winning Wimbledon, becoming Britain’s first male singles champion on the lawns since Fred Perry in 1936?
There will still be those who dislike her for her roars of encouragement, and for the way she clenches her fist, but you can’t please everyone. If you want to blame Judy Murray for something, blame her for this – for not having any more children. As Stephen Bierley, former tennis correspondent of The Guardian once wrote, ‘Judy should be held personally responsible for the ills of British tennis; she stopped producing children after she had Andy’.
Mark Hodgkinson is the author of Andy Murray Champion: His Full Extraordinary Story, published by Simon & Schuster, priced £7.99.
Between the wars, American player Helen Willis Moody won eight Wimbledon singles titles, but in 1990 her record was broken when Martina Navratilova secured nine singles titles, and 20 titles in total, a record she shares with Billie Jean King.
Navratilova’s champion run at Wimbledon was ended in 1988 by Steffi Graf, who won the singles tournament seven times.
‘I know I’m not hugely popular,’ said Judy Murray, who in her youth was the dominant force in Scottish women’s tennis – the tartan Chris Evert, if you like – with more than 60 girls’ and ladies’ titles. To scroll through some of the comments about her online is to be shocked by the vitriol.
There can be no doubt that she has been treated unfairly, sometimes extremely unfairly. A national newspaper once asked on the front page, puffing a feature inside, whether she was The Pushiest Mother in Britain. The accusation was that her tennis elbows were sharpened to the point that they could take Andy’s opponents’ eyes out. That can’t have been pleasant for her, especially as she was writing a column for the paper at the time.
The former Wimbledon champion Boris Becker once pondered aloud whether Judy was smothering her youngest son to the extent that she was preventing him from making the most of his talent – in some quarters this was reported as Becker calling him ‘a mummy’s boy’ – and she retorted that the German knew nothing about her family.
No one has ever properly explained how her supposed control-freakery is possible, given that she lives in Scotland (and her sons don’t), while she has many other commitments, and only travels to a few tournaments each year. Does anyone seriously imagine that Ivan Lendl would have taken the job as Murray’s coach if he was going to have to put up with constant interference from the player’s mother? It’s not as if Judy and Andy only talk about tennis together – of course, that comes up in conversation, but they have normal mother and son chats, and paparazzi shots of the two showed them shopping for an ironing board and multipacks of loo roll. Plus, Andy once sent a Christmas card to his mother in which he thanked her for ‘always believing in me, always supporting me, always letting me make my own decisions’.
Now the snobs don’t like Judy Murray much. The problem they have is that she isn’t Jane Henman. As I argued in my biography of Andy Murray, it often seems as though Judy’s greatest crime is the fact she’s not Tim Henman’s mother – prim, still, silent and in the background. That she is not a Home Counties tennis mum, cloaked in Laura Ashley and upper-middle-class discretion. Indeed, Judy once had difficulty gaining access to the Members’ Enclosure at the All England Club because she was wearing jeans, an experience she shared with the readers of her column. No one could accuse her of being an establishment toady.
Judy has wondered in the past whether there is sexism at play on the international tennis scene, but she should wonder no more, as there plainly is. Tennis is used to fathers who take an interest in their children’s playing careers, but mums somehow make them uncomfortable.
There’s not a great deal that Judy Murray can do about that. But perhaps this could be the summer when the Wimbledon crowds show greater appreciation of Judy’s achievement of raising two boys who have gone on to be grand slam champions, with her eldest son Jamie winning the mixed doubles title at the 2007 Wimbledon Championships and Andy scoring a singles major at last season’s US Open. The public have shown that they are more than capable of changing their opinion of someone. Just look at what happened to her son Andy, who felt as though he ‘reconnected’ with the public last summer, thanks to his tears after losing the Wimbledon final, and then his victories at the Olympics and then in New York. Could something similar happen to Judy this summer if her son ends up winning Wimbledon, becoming Britain’s first male singles champion on the lawns since Fred Perry in 1936?
There will still be those who dislike her for her roars of encouragement, and for the way she clenches her fist, but you can’t please everyone. If you want to blame Judy Murray for something, blame her for this – for not having any more children. As Stephen Bierley, former tennis correspondent of The Guardian once wrote, ‘Judy should be held personally responsible for the ills of British tennis; she stopped producing children after she had Andy’.
Mark Hodgkinson is the author of Andy Murray Champion: His Full Extraordinary Story, published by Simon & Schuster, priced £7.99.
Wimbledon’s greatest women
So who is Wimbledon’s greatest lady player? The Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, have dominated the game in recent years, with five singles titles each, but back in the 1960s and 1970s, it was all about Margaret Court, who won Wimbledon in 1963 and 1965, before starting a family and returning in 1970 to take all four major titles in one year.Between the wars, American player Helen Willis Moody won eight Wimbledon singles titles, but in 1990 her record was broken when Martina Navratilova secured nine singles titles, and 20 titles in total, a record she shares with Billie Jean King.
Navratilova’s champion run at Wimbledon was ended in 1988 by Steffi Graf, who won the singles tournament seven times.