Andy Murray dedicates Davis Cup win to late grandmother after missing funeral to play
A tearful Andy Murray dedicated a rollercoaster Davis Cup victory over Switzerland’s Leandro Riedi to his grandmother, revealing he had missed her funeral to play in the competition.
Murray broke down during his on-court interview with Naomi Broady after closing out an energy-sapping 6-7 6-4 6-4 win over the world No 152, which marked the Briton’s 33rd singles victory in the competition.
The three-time champion disclosed the revelation after Broady pointed out that his epic contest - which lasted three hours and 10 minutes - had been watched by a 90-year-old grandmother in the crowd named Pat, who was at her first live tennis match, and asked if he could give her a memento.
“I’ve got a few sweaty T-shirts, I’m sure I can sort one out for her,” said Murray, before stepping away from the microphone and breaking down in tears.
He recomposed himself to tell the 9000-strong crowd that he had missed the funeral of his paternal grandmother, Ellen, who was the mother of his father, Willie, to play in the tie.
“Today is a tough day for me, it’s actually my.. sorry,” said Murray, choking back tears. “It’s my gran’s funeral today. I’m sorry to my family that I’m not able to be there. So Gran, this one’s for you.”
Murray received a consoling farewell as he sat down in his chair and sunk his head into his towel afterwards, as the partisan crowd inside Manchester’s AO Arena offered a comforting round of applause for the 36-year-old.
The three-time Grand Slam champion later expanded on his reason for wanting to play in such a poignant match afterwards, explaining that he had spoken to his father beforehand about whether or not to honour his commitment.
Murray had been named in Britain’s Davis Cup team last month alongside Cameron Norrie, Jack Draper, Dan Evans and doubles specialist Neal Skupski. “I spoke to my dad about it and he said that she would have wanted me to play,” he said. “He just said, ‘Make sure you win.’ So I did.”
Murray, who continues to defy the odds with his so-called ‘metal hip’, has a long history of being overcome with emotion during his storied career, which he extended after a major hip operation in 2019. The procedure involved attaching a metal cap to the ball in the hip, with a metal strip put in the pelvic socket to set it into place.
He broke down in tears after learning that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was freed after five years in a Tehran prison last year, was inspired after being allowed to watch his 2016 Wimbledon triumph while in solitary confinement during her six years in an Iranian jail.
In 2019, he also held a teary press conference ahead of the Australian Open, when he suggested the tournament in Melbourne could be his last after revealing his devastating hip injury was taking an emotional and physical toll on his body. He was so overwhelmed that he had to leave the room for a few minutes and was unable to speak at times.
Murray’s stirring victory over Swiss youngster Lieidi was a fitting tribute to his late grandmother, as it encapsulated his competitive spirit and tendency to fight back in the face of adversity.
At one point in the second set, he slipped on the court and grazed his knee, but soldiered on with blood trickling down his shin as he fought back against Liedi, who was making his Davis Cup debut, having surrendered an 5-2 lead in the opening set before being squeezed out in a tie-break.
Sensing the shift in momentum, Murray built on a break in the deciding set to go 4-2 up before closing out a gutsy performance to hand Britain a 1-0 lead in the tie. “It was ridiculous the way he was returning, the match could easily have gone the other way but I kept fighting,” said Murray.