Sir Andy Murray says he is proud that Wimbledon will unveil a statue in his honour at the 2027 Championships – and has faith that the All England Club will come up with a likeness of him that won’t leave fans laughing or scratching their heads.
The last time a statue was made in Murray’s honour, in an ATP tournament in Shanghai in 2011, the former British No 1 was photographed next to a terracotta warrior that looked more like one of America’s founding fathers or the former Chelsea manager José Mourinho.
Meanwhile a bust of Cristiano Ronaldo’s head at Madeira airport prompted widespread criticism – and amusement – when it was unveiled in 2018. However Murray told the Guardian 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 in 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.
And Murray, who won the title twice in 2013 and 2016, 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.”
The news was announced by Debbie Jevans, the chair of the AELTC, who said the tournament wanted to honour Murray in a similar way to how the French Open had recognised Rafael Nadal, who had a plaque unveiled in Paris this year to celebrate his 14 victories at Roland Garros.
“We looked at Rafa Nadal having that sort of plaque unveiled to him at Roland Garros which was all very special,” she told the Performance People podcast. “We thought, what do we want for Andy?
“We had a great celebration for Andy when he played his last match, which was on Centre Court. And then when he came, when all the old players came and they greeted him and Sue Barker interviewed him.
“So we did a similar thing for him here last year but we are looking to have a statue of Andy Murray here and we’re working closely with him and his team.”
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Jevans confirmed that Wimbledon intends to unveil the statue in 2027 to coincide with the 150th anniversary of its first championships in 1877.
“When he won it was just so special, so special for him, so special for us as a club,” she added. “Now he’s retired, we’re very much looking at how we can embrace him, for him to be a part of the club in the long term.”
A statue of Murray at Wimbledon has been mooted for some time, but calls for it to happen gathered pace when he retired last year. Among those to lead the charge was John McEnroe, who said the 38-year-old deserved it after becoming, in 2013, the first British male tennis player to win Wimbledon for 77 years. “If I was making that decision, I would say absolutely, yes, because that’s a long drought, 77 years,” he said. “He’s absolutely changed the way people look at British tennis. He’s one of the greatest competitors that I’ve ever seen play tennis.
“It would be well deserved, and it’d be awesome, because two of his three grand slam wins were at Wimbledon plus the Olympics. So that would seem to make a whole lot of sense.”
