‘My daughter is a lot more smiley than me, that’s for sure,’ admits Andy Murray
Andy Murray admits that his three-month-old daughter Sophia is “a lot more smiley” than her father. Murray, who plays his first Grand Slam tournament since the birth of his daughter when the French Open gets under way here on Sunday, is clearly enjoying fatherhood.
“It’s been great so far,” Murray said. “She has travelled well and sleeps well, which makes a big difference. We have adjoining rooms so I sleep next door during tournaments, but even when we’re back home she has been great.”
He added: “I try to be home every night for bath time. I do as much as I can to help. Every week it’s getting better, easier. Once she starts moving around, everyone tells me, that’s when it gets more complicated.”
Was Sophia’s personality coming through? “She’s a lot more smiley than me, that’s for sure,” Murray said. “I don’t know if she gets that from Kim. She has been very calm and chilled so far. I haven’t done anything competitive with her yet, so I don’t know if she is going to have my genes there. Hopefully not.”
Murray will need to show his competitive spirit here over the next fortnight if he is to go deep into the only Grand Slam tournament where he has yet to make the final. The world No 2 said he was “a long way” from achieving such a feat, though he has made huge strides on clay since the start of the 2015 season. He claimed his first titles on the surface last year and won the Rome Masters last weekend, beating Novak Djokovic in the final.
“That is what has been nice for me the last couple of years in the clay season,” Murray said. “It’s been nice at this stage in my career to achieve things that I’d never done and maybe thought that I wouldn’t. Like [winning] the Davis Cup, for example. That was something I never thought we’d do and that made it more special.
“Winning in Rome – I’d had some terrible times there over the years with injuries, with my back, so to win there was amazing, one of my nicest wins, I really enjoyed that. This is the only Slam I haven’t played the final of, so if I could do that I think I would have played in the final of pretty much all the major events in tennis bar Monte Carlo. It would be nice, but I’m not here to reach the final.”
Murray was particularly encouraged by the manner of his victory over Djokovic in Rome last weekend. “I did a good job of just staying solid the whole way through,” he said. “Any time there was danger, I handled those situations well, I was pretty calm, made good decisions under pressure and that’s what you need to do on clay. I didn’t rush any of those points. I was nice and patient.
“My serve was huge for me, not just last week but through Madrid as well. I need to serve well to beat the best players, but I’ve made big improvements on that side of things. Hopefully it keeps going that way.”
Murray revealed that he had gone outside his immediate entourage for help with his serve. Louis Cayer, who works with the Scot’s brother Jamie, and Ben Haran, a coach at the tennis academy at Reed’s School in Surrey, have been particularly helpful. Murray’s mother, Judy, also had some input.
“A lot of the ex-players don’t know that side of things as much,” Murray said. “They’ve never had to teach someone how to serve. They serve fine themselves. It’s easy to say: ‘Hit the second serve harder.’ But you need to have the technique to be able to do that.
“By making the changes in my technique and watching stuff online as well and just basically trying to learn about it has made a huge difference. I’m really happy about that. I think it obviously helps me on the clay, but I think I’ll get big rewards for that during the grass-court season if I keep improving it and it keeps going that way. It’s been a big positive for me.”
He added: “I have made some changes to my technique, quite significant ones that maybe don’t look as big, but significant changes that help me mentally when I go to serve. I don’t think I’m going to miss if I serve at 100 miles an hour. I think I’m going to make it every time.”
