Andy Murray said he is proud that Wimbledon would unveil a statue in his honor at the 2027 Wimbledon Championships — and has faith that the All England Club would come up with a likeness of him that would not leave fans laughing or scratching their heads.
The last time a statue was made in Murray’s honor, at the 2011 Shanghai Rolex Masters, the former British No 1 was photographed next to a terracotta warrior that looked more like one of the US’ founding fathers or former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho.
Meanwhile a bust of Cristiano Ronaldo’s head at Madeira airport prompted widespread criticism — and amusement — when it was unveiled in 2018.
Photo: AFP
However, Murray said that he had no doubts that Wimbledon would get it right.
“When we played in Shanghai, they did these terracotta, warrior-type things, and they weren’t great,” he said. “But based on how Wimbledon goes about things, and their attention to detail, I would expect that it would be very good. So I trust that they’ll do a good job.”
Until now only Fred Perry, who won Wimbledon three times in a row in the 1930s, has a full-length statue on the grounds of the club. There are also five busts of British female champions displayed outside Centre Court, featuring Kitty Godfree, Dorothy Round, Angela Mortimer, Ann Jones and Virginia Wade.
Murray said he was delighted to be following in their footsteps.
“It’ll be nice to take the kids there and show them,” he said. “I obviously spend a decent amount of time there during the year, and always see the Fred Perry statue. So it will be strange to see one of me there, too, but I’m sure with time I’ll be really proud.”
Murray is to help design the statue to mark the grass-court tournament’s 150th anniversary.
“He’s got to rightly be very involved in that, and him and his team will be,” All England Club chairwoman Debbie Jevans said on Tuesday.
Murray ended Britain’s 77-year wait for a home champion in men’s singles in 2013 when he beat Novak Djokovic in the final. The Scotsman won the second title — and his third Grand Slam singles title overall — in a 2016 final against Milos Raonic.
An inspiration for the statue project is the way Rafael Nadal was honored, with Murray in attendance, this month at Roland Garros, where he won 14 French Open titles.
“We looked at Rafa Nadal having that sort of plaque unveiled to him at Roland Garros which was all very special,” Jevans said. “But we thought, what do we want for Andy?”
Additional reporting by AP
INJURY TURMOIL: Despite stunning French Open champions Paolini and Errani to advance, Chan was forced to pull out after her partner’s tearful women’s singles defeat Last year’s mixed doubles champions Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Poland’s Jan Zielinski on Monday crashed out of the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, leaving the Taiwanese star focused on pursuing a fifth women’s doubles title in London, while a partner injury forced compatriot Chan Hao-ching to give up on her doubles campaign. Hsieh and Zielinksi, who last year also won the Australia Open title, narrowly lost their opening set 7-6 (9/7), before Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani stunned the former champions 6-3 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The Taiwanese-Polish duo had been dominant in the first two
Real Madrid’s FIFA Club World Cup quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund had taken three crazy turns during nine minutes of second-half stoppage time when Marcel Sabitzer chested the ball and sent a right-footed volley toward Thibaut Courtois’ post. Courtois leapt to his right, extended the long arm on his 2m frame and just managed to get his gloved fingertips on the ball, knocking it down. Courtois hit the ground as the ball bounded up. He looked skyward, planted his right hand to regain his balance, grabbed the ball with both hands on the second bounce and fell onto it with his chest. Sabitzer turned
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus’ four-year suspension for doping, ruling that her positive test for a banned substance was caused by kissing her then-boyfriend, American fencer Race Imboden. Thibus, a silver medalist in team foil at the Tokyo Games, had tested positive for ostarine, a prohibited muscle-building substance, during a competition in Paris in January last year. However, CAS concluded there was no intentional wrongdoing, finding it scientifically plausible that repeated kissing over several days with Olympic medalist Imboden — who was taking ostarine at the time — led to accidental contamination. The court
Chelsea scored the go-ahead goal on Malo Gusto’s 83rd-minute shot that went in after a pair of deflections, beating Palmeiras 2-1 on Friday night for a spot in the FIFA Club World Cup semi-finals. Cole Palmer put Chelsea ahead in the 16th minute, but Estevao, an 18-year-old who is to transfer to Chelsea this summer, tied the score against his future club with an angled shot in the 53rd. Gusto’s shot following a short corner kick appeared to deflect off defender Agustin Giay and goalkeeper Weverton and sent the Chelsea portion of 65,782 fans into a frenzy. FIFA credited Weverton with an
RSS