Andy Murray opened his Wimbledon campaign yesterday accompanied by an old friend and a new fan – his returning coach, Ivan Lendl, and his baby daughter, Sophia.
The player’s wife, Kim, arrived at the All England Club pushing their four-month-old daughter in a pram, although Sophia did not join her mother in Centre Court to see the No2 seed dispatch fellow Briton Liam Broady in straight sets.
Speaking after the match, Murray said he hadn’t had a chance to see his daughter before she left the grounds. “She’ll be in bed once I get back. I have as much contact as I can during the tournament, but when I’m playing it’s obviously more difficult.”
Did he feel different coming to his home tournament for the first time as a dad? “I feel different everywhere. It’s not just because I’m playing at Wimbledon. All of the tournaments it feels different having a child. It feels different all of the time.”
Murray has spoken about how Lendl’s return as coach after two years – they finalised their renewed partnership barely three weeks ago – gives him extra confidence, given the success they had together previously. It was while he was coached by the Czech that Murray won Wimbledon, the US Open and Olympic gold. Lendl, sitting in the player’s box, was his usual inscrutable self.
Murray paid tribute to the star of the tournament so far, Briton Marcus Willis, who won a place in the second round – and a contest with Roger Federer today – by defeating a player ranked 718 places above him in the international rankings on the tournament’s opening day. “Amazing story, great story … You don’t see stories like that too often in tennis.”
Did he have any chance against Federer? “Look, I mean, anyone can beat anyone in the draw. Amazing things do happen in sport sometimes. Obviously Roger’s a massive, massive favourite going into the match.”
Murray was joined in the second round by Tara Moore, the fourth Briton to reach that stage so far. The 23-year-old said it was amazing to have won her first Wimbledon match, beating the Belgian Alison van Uytvanck in straight sets. Moore began playing tennis at seven when her mother encouraged her to do so to lose weight. “I wasn’t overweight, but I’m pretty built,” said the player after the match. “She wants me to be healthy.” Her mother, she said, was “quite a character”.
Born in Hong Kong, Moore said she had essentially grown up in America, where she went to the famous Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida before moving back to Britain to live for a while with her grandparents in Doncaster. There were no other tennis players in the family, she said, but added: “I have a tennis ball-loving dog, if that counts.”
She said her father was among a large group of friends who had turned up to watch her match. With a guaranteed pay cheque of at least £50,000, how would she be celebrating? “I’m definitely going out for dinner tonight. I have a feeling it’s on me, for some reason.”
It was a frustrating afternoon otherwise at the All England Club, where dark clouds and heavy rain disrupted much of the afternoon’s play, including the opening match of Johanna Konta, the British number one, when she was leading by a set.
Heather Watson, the British No2, who came close to defeating Serena Williams in the third round of last year’s tournament, saw her match postponed until Wednesday.
