"Huge source of disappointment" - Andy Murray's mother Judy upset after failing to build $25.5M tennis center despite working her 'b**t off'
Judy Murray has dedicated her entire life to tennis, whether it be coaching her sons Andy and Jamie Murray to successful careers or promoting tennis in her capacity as a tennis coach. She's active as a volunteer in her local tennis club to this day but dreamt of building a bigger tennis center that could help kids in Scotland pursue tennis in a better capacity.
Tennis is not a sport that dominates the Scottish sports landscape, but it did peak in interest thanks to the amazing career of her son Andy Murray. Judy Murray intended to build a huge tennis center, and she worked hard on the project.
In an interview with The Herald recently, she opened up on how failing to build the center (which the publication revealed was worth a whopping £20 Million or $25.5 Million) was one of the most painful tennis-related experiences she's had in her life.
“I was encouraged to give it scale by Sport Scotland and the Lawn Tennis Association to become a centre of national significance. I would have to say I didn’t need that. I just wanted somewhere to work to develop other coaches and players," she said.
The tennis coach had planned it as a place for the community and didn't have any financial motivations in doing so. She even set it up as a charity, but the project went through a couple of delays and ultimately failed, leaving her devastated because she worked very hard and very long to make it happen.
“I worked my b**t 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,” she added.
Judy Murray's current engagement
Even though her visionary project failed, Judy Murray is still committed to her lifelong mission of promoting tennis. These days she's not really working on a project but mostly volunteering at her local tennis club where she lives.
She's also involved with the Saudi Tennis Federation holding courses for young women from that country who are interested in pursuing tennis. That gig was heavily criticized by many after it became public knowledge but she has defended her involvement with the Saudi Federation, believing her work to be overall a net positive both for women and for the sport of tennis in the country.