TENNIS.com Podcast: Judy Murray on Andy and Jamie's legacy

“You need to prepare for a legacy. You can’t just say, ‘Oh they stopped playing. We need a legacy.’”

TENNIS.com Podcast hosts Nina Pantic and Irina Falconi are thrilled to have Judy Murray on this week. Though best known as the mother and former coach of Andy and Jamie Murray, the Scot has her own vibrant story to tell as she continues to do everything she can to promote tennis in Scotland and around the world.

Her book Knowing the Score came out in 2017, telling the story of her life and how she raised two future world No. 1s in a country that had no tennis infrastructure in place (1:10). She describes how tennis back home has changed over the past few decades, pushed largely along by the success of her sons—who have nine Grand Slams between them and were No. 1 at the same time at the end of 2016 (07:18).

With Andy’s return to competition uncertain, and Jamie turning 33 last month, Judy wants to establish their legacy before their playing days are over so tennis can grow larger back home (11:21). She didn’t realize the powerful impact Andy could have on the sport until he won Wimbledon in 2013, when she says everything changed (14:41).

Like everyone, Judy wants to see more coaches in tennis, particularly women, but there are many challenges including the way many think a coaching career is a failed playing one (16:55). She gives her advice to anyone looking to get into coaching (23:12), and tries to answer why there aren’t many women coaches or hitting partners (25:10).

She has her hands in many different projects including Miss Hits for girls ages 5-8, Tennis on the Road to bring tennis all over Scotland, Tennis Everywhere to encourage everyone to play even if they don’t have a court, her new role with WTT’s Philadelphia Freedoms and what she says is her main focus right now: opening a tennis and athletics center just outside of Dunblane (32:00).

And of course, we had to ask: how is Andy doing after undergoing hip replacement surgery and how hard has the injury struggle been on him, and the entire family (45:15)?

That's it for this episode of The TENNIS.com Podcast: Inside the Tour. Subscribe on iTunes, Android and/or Spotify so you don't miss a single second.