Murray much more than just a tennis player: Mauresmo

PARIS: Andy Murray will leave the sport as more than just a sporting figure, the Briton’s former coach Amelie Mauresmo said on Sunday.

Murray, 31, said on Friday that this year’s Australian Open could be his last professional tournament, although the former world number one hopes he can bow out at his beloved Wimbledon.

The three-time grand slam champion has emerged as a feminist figure in tennis, notably hiring Frenchwoman Mauresmo as his coach from 2014-16.

“He is a champion reaching beyond his sport, especially by taking steps forward on the gender equality topic,” former world number one Mauresmo told French sports daily L’equipe.

“(Taking me as a coach) was not a PR thing. It was a profound conviction he had from his education, his open-mindedness.

“He is not afraid of his own sensitiveness, on the contrary. To me, he has been undervalued as a man, not as a tennis player.” Murray broke down on Friday when he told a news conference that the severe pain from his troublesome right hip had become almost unbearable for him to play on.

Murray was the first British man to win Wimbledon in 77 years and will be remembered for battling his way to world number one in 2016 during a golden era for men’s tennis alongside Federer, Djokovic and Nadal.

In July 2012 - before he won any of his three Grand Slam titles, his two Olympic medals, or led Britain to their first Davis Cup in 79 years — an emotional Murray broke down in an on-court interview following his four-set loss to Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final.

“I felt like I was playing for the nation,” Murray said, his bottom lip quivering, “and I couldn’t quite do it.”

Inadvertently, it might have boosted his public standing more than winning the title.

In an instant, Murray was humanised. His emotions laid bare, it felt like he was finally accepted by the whole country, not just tennis fans who had long appreciated his undoubted talent since turning pro in 2005.