British sport owes Andy’s mum a great debt for defying sexism at every level of tennis, writes
Why Judy Murray should be a national treasure
Critics portray her as a pushy parent – a stereotype that rankles
Judy Murray’s new book, Knowing the
Score, is a fascinating and incriminating document. As well as mapping out the travails of tennis parenthood, it offers a window into generations of patronising, belittling attitudes to women in sport. On the sliding scale of sporting sexism, tennis might seem to stand at the less toxic end, given that it supplies about 80 per cent of the world’s best-paid female athletes. Yet Murray still describes an uneven playing field at every level.
Her first memories of institutional bias date from the early 1970s, when she was a promising junior, and a Scottish national coach would constantly send her off to practise unsupervised while he paid “rapt attention” to the boys. About 20 years later, Murray won a place on a Lawn Tennis Association course, designed to develop her coaching skills, only to find that a disappointed applicant had made a formal complaint. “What could I, ‘a woman with young children, possibly offer to performance coaching?’ he had written”.
And then there was the LTA chief executive who found her hunched over a laptop studying video analysis of Andy’s forthcoming opponent in the US Open junior event. He gave “a wry, almost indulgent smile” and said: “Goodness, you’re taking this all a bit seriously, aren’t you?”
At times, Murray must have felt she was trying to push a lorry up Ben Nevis. And it was not just a British issue. Until she became Fed Cup captain in 2011, she did not realise the extent to which the whole WTA tour is dominated by male coaches and male hitting partners.
Murray has since channelled these experiences into her ground-breaking programmes Miss-hits and She Rallies – the former designed to attract young girls to the court, the latter promoting female coaches.
Now it seems the people at the LTA are finally ready to put their shoulders to the wheel. Alarmed by a 30 per cent fall in women and girls’ tennis participation since 2005 – which far exceeds the male figure of 17 per cent – they recently advertised for a new manager to work solely in promoting this half of the sport. Murray’s book will be required reading for the successful applicant.
As for the wider readership, they will come away marvelling at the obstacles that she has overcome, both as a woman in sport and a tennis parent from Scotland – formerly the land that forehands forgot. Time and again, she sucked up condescending remarks and got on with the job – or jobs, because when money ran short, she kept the ship afloat by learning new skills, from accountancy to massage.
Murray’s critics are determined to keep portraying her as a pushy parent – a stereotype that continues to rankle. But the truth is that she has already done British sport a colossal favour by raising Andy and Jamie into a pair of role models.
In the long run, her work to promote equal opportunities may prove just as influential. She should be considered a national treasure.