Andy Murray’s mother Judy Murray was interviewed by ‘Tennis Channel’ and she revealed some rarely known facts about her 3-time Grand Slam Champion son. We take a look at a specific conversation of Andy with her mother that ultimately changed the trajectory of his career.
It is an interesting incident that captures the passion and love that Andy Murray had for the game of Tennis. That conversation would go on to change the way he approached Tennis or as he said ‘racquetball’ forever.
Murray and Rafael Nadal were close competitors from a very young age. While Nadal grew up in Mallorca and with the coaching of his uncle Toni Nadal, Murray grew up in Scotland and was an everyday school-going kid.
The two faced each other at the European under-16 Team Championships, where they each won their singles match to help their respective teams, Spain and Great Britain.
The then 15-year-old, Andy, spent time with Nadal and that experience changed the way he approached Tennis. Murray would go on to call his mom to share it.
Judy Murray, Andy’s mom, summarized the phone call she received from her son in an interview.
When they were 15 and 16, Great Britain played Spain in the final of the European 16 and under Team Championships in Andorra. They each won their singles and later on that evening Andy came on the phone, “Reverse charge call from Andorra, will you pay for it?” And I’m thinking, “He never calls, unless something’s wrong”; “He’s lost his passport, he’s lost his money.”
“And so, he’s going “Mum, I’ve just been playing racquetball with Rafa and do you know what he does? He trains on clay, in the sunshine! He doesn’t go to school and he gets to hit with Carlos Moya. What have I got you?” And I’m holding the phone like this.”
“I was quite pleased that he was realizing that he had to do more because I knew he had more or less run out of the environment that we could create in Scotland and that he needed.”
“But I also realized that it has to come from him. He has to want to do it Anyway, that led us to exploring some academies in Barcelona, which is the hotbed of European tennis as you know, and six months later he started at the Sanchez Casal Academy.”
Patrick Mouratoglou cites Andy Murray Versus Thanasi Kokkinakis as the Greatest Australian Open Tennis Match in recent Grand Slam history.
Patrick Mouratoglou recently made an appearance on the official social media platform of the Australian Open, in which he analyzed the great game between Andy Murray and Thanasi Kokkinakis from last year.
Andy Murray recovered from a two-set deficit to defeat the Australian in five. Kokkinakis was dominating Andy with powerful and aggressive gameplay in the first two sets, but Murray was able to capitalize on the slip-up made by him in the third. Murray was predominantly in a defensive stance for most of the game and was trying to extend the rally as much as he could.
In the fifth set, however, he got a chance to dominate Kokkinakis as he had recovered the two-set deficit and was ready to explode. He was successful and won the match 4-6, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 6-3, 7-5. The marathon went on for 5 long hours and finally finished at 4 AM.
The former coach of Serena Williams, Patrick Mouratoglou, analyzed and did a complete breakdown of the match. The post was also captioned as the ‘one of the greatest matches at AO 2023.’
“Throwback to one of the greatest matches at AO 2023.”
Throwback to one of the greatest matches at AO 2023. @pmouratoglou gives us his take on Andy Murray V Thanasi Kokkinakis 😮 pic.twitter.com/gwEc1sPz3U
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 8, 2024
