Long before Andy Murray began mixing his mischievous court sense and conjurer’s feel to bamboozle opponents, he was getting the runaround on his hometown court from a familiar face—his mom, Judy.
“When my kids were small, I played tennis with them rather than coach them,” said Judy Murray, whose older son Jamie became the first member of the family to win a major title by capturing the 2007 Wimbledon mixed doubles with Jelena Jankovic. “I played with them and I taught them to play the game from a tactical standpoint so they would always understand to learn by playing the game. If I played a drop shot to bring Andy forward and then I chucked a lob over his head he could see how I could make it difficult for a smaller kid. Then he would try to do that to me. Basically, my kids learned from a tactical base rather than a technical base.”
Great Britain’s Fed Cup captain has coached tennis for about 25 years, working with players ranging from absolute beginners to Grand Slam champions. She began as a volunteer coach after her playing days, rose up the ranks to become Scottish national coach—where she helped design the framework for the Scottish player development system and introduced 10-and-under tournament tennis—and now spends some of her spare time conducting clinics in schools. On Sunday morning in New York, the 54-year-old will try to make history in leading the world’s largest tennis lesson, as recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records, to launch World Tennis Day.
“Tennis is a fun way for parents to play with their children and encourage them to lead an active and healthy lifestyle. You realize how much sport can do for the overall development of a child, not just physically, but socially, in terms of confidence and self-esteem,” Judy Murray said a telephone interview to promote World Tennis Day. “This whole approach of getting kids playing and encouraging families to get into tennis is exactly the way that it should be because tennis, for young kids, is quite a complex coordination sport. You’ve got to handle a piece of equipment and you’ve got to work with a moving ball over a net and within lines. It’s actually quite a complex sport to start off in when you’re little.”
More than 250 children from the NYC area, including kids from the New York Junior Tennis and Learning and the Harlem Junior Tennis and Education programs, will participate in the 30-minute lesson, which starts at 9 a.m. To find a Tennis Play Event and information how families can get involved, visit youthtennis.com.
The record-setting attempt at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens precedes the World Tennis Day celebration on Monday night in Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden, which pits Judy’s son Andy against world No. 2 Novak Djokovic, and a sibling doubles clash between the Bryan brothers and the McEnroe brothers in the BNP Paribas Showdown.
The serious, stressed-out disposition Judy sometimes displays in the support box while watching her sons play belies the dry sense of humor she shares with fans over social media.
