A smashing guy
Murray says lay-off was hard on family
ANDY Murray’s popularity is as much to do with his off-court conduct as it is with his world-class game.
His staunch support for women’s rights has been an inspiration, as is his charitable work.
A documentary will shed new light on this extraordinary athlete by charting his path back to fitness from career-threatening hip injuries.
In an interview, he has also said his spell on the sidelines has helped him understand his priorities in life.
When Andy retires – hopefully not for a number of years – we are certain his new life will be as successful as his tennis playing days.
SIR Andy Murray has said his marriage was put under a “lot of strain” following the hip injury that threatened to end his tennis career. In a brutally honest interview, the 32-year-old admitted he put on a brave face for his children but added that wife Kim bore the brunt of his frustration during a long lay-off. Thankfully, the double Wimbledon champion said the episode taught him a lot about life he wouldn’t ordinarily have been exposed to. And he’s back firing on all cylinders at the Davis Cup in Madrid this week. An Amazon documentary on his recovery battle will stream from November 29 and will give an insight into how the injury affected his family life.
In Resurfacing, Sir Andy says: “I was pretty down, that’s for sure. It was a really tough period for me because it wasn’t so much the actual injury itself.
“Being injured can be frustrating but the issue that I had was with me every single day, sleeping and walking. It wasn’t just I hit a serve and my arm hurt. This woke me up in the night. It was bad.
“I don’t know if the children noticed. When I’m with them, I’m always trying to put on a brave face but my wife, definitely.
“It put a lot of strain on our relationship, just because I was down all the time.” And praising artist Kim, who he married in his hometown of Dunblane in 2015, the triple Grand Slam winner added: “She has been brilliant and I would probably be quite selfish, just in terms of thinking about myself and how I’m feeling all the time and not actually realising the impact that has on the people around me.” Andy is now back playing again after undergoing a hip resurfacing operation earlier this year and the couple’s third child, a boy called Teddy, was born last month.
The couple also have two daughters, Sophia, three, and two-year-old Edie.
Andy revealed that despite encouraging words from family and friends, it had been hard to keep going.
He said: “I was, like, ‘You don’t know what I’m feeling.
“I probably didn’t take into consideration what that was doing to everyone around me. I see a little of this in the documentary. Some bits are quite hard for me to watch.”
And on the surgery changing his outlook on life, he added: “This was genuinely life-changing for all sorts of reasons, not just to play tennis but when I’m crawling through a tunnel in soft play with my children, or getting down on the floor to roll around with them. I couldn’t do that before.”
He also revealed that the injury highlighted he felt lost without tennis.
Andy said: “For most of my life, family has been important but what do I do without tennis?
“Now, I realise life is great without tennis, providing you have your health and I’ve got a brilliant family at home.”