Andy Murray’s glittering career came to an end on Thursday after defeat in the Olympic doubles to Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul.
The tennis world all stopped for a moment on Thursday as Andy Murray searched for some comfort in his teary retirement goodbye.
With the Roland Garros crowd having totally and utterly embraced the Brit, his emotional farewell with his partner Dan Evans was so personally felt by his mother, Judy Murray.
She has been a staple in the Murray box throughout every triumph and every agonizing defeat, viscerally feeling every last shot.
Having raised not one but two grand slam champions, she has more or less single-handedly guided British tennis back into the picture, with Murray ending a 77-year wait for Wimbledon glory.
He has always been a fierce on-court competitor, existing in arguably one of tennis’ greatest eras and managing to stay at the top throughout.
Why does Judy Murray blame Rafael Nadal for all of Andy Murray’s success?
During a moving video from the LTA, Murray’s closest friends and family sat down to reflect on his truly magnificent career.
With Judy Murray the only person who has truly been there right from the start, she revealed how bullish an attitude her youngest son had from the start – and it all seems to be Nadal’s fault!
She said: “When he went off to Andorra to play for Great Britain in the European team championships, under-16, Rafa [Nadal] was playing for Spain and the two of them after the final went off to play racquetball.
“Andy came on the phone after that game and it said ‘would you pay for an international call from Andorra’. Immediately I’m thinking ‘he’s lost his passport, he’s lost his wallet’. Like most boys he doesn’t really phone very often. I was like what is it? What’s happened?
“And he said about playing racket ball with Rafa and said ‘he doesn’t go to school, he gets to hit with Carlos Moya, he trains in the sunshine and what have I got? You and my brother at the university.’ So I blame Rafa, completely blame Rafa for this!”
Murray ended up moving to Spain to train at the Sanchez-Casal academy and his move abroad helped his career hugely.
It seems that his potential was evident right from the start, when he went for a trial at the tennis academy too.
“He chose to go to the Sanchez Casal. When he went over for the trial he played two sets with Emilio Sanchez, who is former top 10 player, and I sat in the cafe and let them go off and do it and came back. Emilio said to Andy to go and have a shower, I want to go and talk to your mum,” Judy revealed.
“And he said I have never seen anything like that before. I thought ‘oh no, what has he done’. And he said he beat me 6-3, 6-1. He said we got to 3-3 in the first set, it took him six games to work me out, and then he absolutely destroyed me. He said it had never happened to me before with someone as young as that to be so tactically astute.
“Barcelona was brilliant for him because he was a very small fish in a very pond of Spanish tennis. Whereas in Britain it’s very easy to become the big fish in the very small pond of British tennis and that’s a dangerous place to be.”
What was Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal’s rivalry like?
With the pair having been firm friends off and on the court for over 20 years, their rivalry is one that has provided the tennis world with some truly magnificent matches.
The 24 meetings between the two have seen Rafael Nadal win the lion’s share, with 17 victories to Murray’s seven.
The Brit however has the far superior record in major finals having won three of the four, including a magnificent win on the clay in Madrid in 2015.
Murray also got the last laugh with their 2016 semi-final meeting in Madrid going the way of the Brit.
A truly formidable era of tennis has been made so great by the rivalry between the two, and in a truly fitting manner, the pair ended their Olympic journeys, where they have both previously won gold, within just a matter of days from each other.
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