Andy Murray admits he feels ‘really free’ after retirement
Andy Murray has spoken about life since retirement from professional tennis, with the former No.1 admitting that it has been ‘the complete opposite’ of what he was expecting.
Murray saw his 19-year career come to an end at the Paris Olympics at the start of August, playing doubles alongside Dan Evans before losing in the quarter-finals.
There has been lots of speculation about what Murray’s next career move may be, with the 37-year-old telling BBC Radio 4 that he is enjoying life after tennis.
“Since I’ve stopped, I feel really free and have got lots of time to do whatever it is I want,” revealed Murray. “I can dedicate time to my children and have free time to play golf or go to the gym on my own terms.
“It is really nice and I didn’t expect that. I was expecting to find retirement hard and be missing tennis a lot and wanting to get back on the tennis court on tour. So far it has been the complete opposite to what I was thinking.”
Sir Andy Murray speaks to Today sports presenter Garry Richardson about the ‘dad guilt’ he felt before retiring from tennis. In Garry’s final #R4Today programme, he asks the British tennis legend what’s the most exciting thing about leaving the game. pic.twitter.com/n1xZ0EYHQY
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) September 9, 2024
Murray has four young children with his wife, Kim Sears, and the Scot spoke about how much guilt he felt in the latter years of his career for missing out on time spent with his family.
“The thing that I always found difficult in recent years was that there was always a guilt associated with what I was doing,” explained the three-time Grand Slam champion. “If I was going away for a trip of like three to four weeks I would feel guilty leaving my children at home or being away from my wife for a long time with them, so missing the kids I found hard.
The Scot continued, “But if I was at home with the kids then I was running around and spending a lot of my time on my feet after training. I was then thinking ‘is this going to affect my training or performance the next day, should I have my feet up?’ I found that stuff difficult over the last few years.”
Although Murray is currently enjoying time spent away from the tennis court, he has been announced to participate in a celebrity golf event with compatriot Robert MacIntyre next week.
🎾 @andy_murray 🤝 @robert1lefty 🏌️♂️
🏴 A Scottish team-up at the #BMWPGA celebrity Pro-Am 🌟#RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/wyubv8FEUk
— BMW PGA Championship (@BMWPGA) September 9, 2024
Inside the baseline…
Although tennis is always going to be better with Andy Murray in it, it is nice to hear that he is content with his decision to leave the sport and it really did feel like the right time given his various injury struggles. Murray joked that he was having a sport career change, after changing his social media description to ‘I played tennis. I now play golf’ and it seems as though that may be the case at this fun exhibition event in Wentworth next week alongside other celebrities like footballer Gareth Bale, actor Tom Holland and comedian Michael McIntyre!
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