Andy Murray’s mom slams tennis authorities as $25m project stalls

An irate Judy Murray has slammed the Scottish Government and Tennis Scotland, claiming they’ve tarnished son Andy’s tennis legacy.

This comes in the wake of a £20 million ($25.5 million) national tennis center project being put on hold, with Judy pointing fingers at “apathy and lack of co-operation” from the authorities.

The proposed site was to be located near the Murrays’ home in Dunblane, Perthshire, but has now been pushed aside. Judy, who has dedicated over a decade to this cause, expressed her exasperation to The Herald: “I just wanted somewhere to work to develop other coaches and players.

“And I wanted it to be about community; to be open to everybody. Everything just took so long and got bigger and so the costs went up; we hit Covid and Brexit and had challenges with planning delays.

“I wondered how it can be so difficult to build something that is inherently good. We had set it up as a charity, so there was no commercial value to us in it whatsoever.”

She continued: “I worked my butt off to try to get it to where we got it to. But when the construction costs began to rise steeply we really needed all the stakeholders who had committed to step up to help us to fill that gap. And that didn’t happen. We actually had the outline planning permission and we were ready to go for the detailed planning permission.”

Judy expressed her disillusionment with Tennis Scotland during a scathing critique, citing their inaction as a primary reason for her reluctance to get involved further. She shared her frustration, saying she doesn’t have “any confidence in the leadership of Tennis Scotland”.

Judy insisted the project “was not to find another Andy” but to help sport in the local community. She also highlighted Tennis Scotland’s failure to celebrate Andy’s legacy and achievements, adding: “Even when it was the 10-year anniversary of Andy winning Wimbledon, they didn’t do anything, nor when he retired.

“But it’s never been about celebrating his achievements it was about using them to increase the profile of tennis in Scotland and the UK and reach communities that had previously been excluded.

“But what are they actually doing? They’ve now got around 20 full-time staff, but when they had a golden opportunity they dropped the ball spectacularly.”

A spokesperson for Tennis Scotland responded to Judy’s claims with a statement to The Herald. The statement outlined how there’s “more people playing than ever before” and insisting “there has been more than £30 million ($38.2 million) invested in nearly 200 projects across Scotland” since 2014.

The spokesperson added: “There is always more to do and the team at Tennis Scotland will continue working tirelessly to grow our sport.”