There is that dependency. Girls are afraid to lose the coach because if the coach goes, the dream goes too
is growing awareness of how brutal the tennis world can be. ‘So you are seeing more and more parents travel with their kids — but it’s only the ones who can afford it financially who have that luxury.’
A minefield indeed. I also wonder if, had Judy been the mother of girls, she would have been portrayed differently in the media — as a protective mum rather than an aggressive one, pushing her boys towards victory.
This is complicated because of her background (she qualified as a tennis coach very young, at the age of 19). But she is certain she would have been treated differently.
‘If I’d been a father of sons or a mother of daughters, I don’t think I’d have been picked apart in the way I was. I was an anomaly. Every picture that appeared of me had me baring my teeth or pumping my fist. I was painted as Tiger Mum, a nightmare parent. But I should never have been made to feel I had to apologise for being there for my kids, or for being competitive. If I’d been a man I would have been lauded and applauded for it.’
She may have come to fame as a mother, but in more recent years she has become more recognised as a campaigner for women in sport. I use the word activist; she doesn’t.
‘I don’t feel I am an activist. I say I’m a womanist.’ Not feminist? ‘Feminist sounds a bit aggressive,’ she says.
Although understandably cautious about discussing the subject of trans women in sport, she recently said: ‘I
‘If I had been a man, I’d have been lauded and applauded’
think we have to be very careful. Categories have been created in sport for a reason, to create fair and safe competition. If there is clear, unfair physical advantage, then it is going to be incredibly tough on women’s sport — and women’s sport is in the best place it has ever been.
‘It will be up to individual governing bodies to determine how they want to go forward. For everyone to be able to play in a safe and fair way is most important to me.’
Judy could have been a tennis star herself. She tells me her biggest regret in life was turning down a tennis scholarship to the U.S., aged 17.
‘It was a very different world. America was so far away from Scotland. Sports scholarships weren’t that common. I simply wasn’t brave enough to do it. I’m not really one for regrets — I’ve had a great life — but it’s the one thing I wonder about.’
What next for her? She still hopes to open the tennis academy she has been planning for years in her home town of Dunblane in Scotland. It is on track for opening in 2025 and will be ‘a bricksand-mortar legacy’.
What about her home life? She now has five grandchildren. Is she a very different grandmother from the type of mother she was?
‘I’m a very active grandmother,’ she says, which suggests she probably exhausts the little ones.
Does she have them playing all sports or just tennis?
‘All sports,’ she says. ‘I have also offered to teach them to dance, but no one has taken me up on that yet.’