"Just let her be who she is, don't judge too harshly" - Andy Murray asks the media to go easy on Emma Raducanu
Tennis superstar Andy Murray has come out in defence of Emma Raducanu, saying that the teenage Brit should be given time to grow and mature as an athlete.
Speaking to Matt Graveling of BBC Sports, the three-time Grand Slam champion spoke about how the media should be protecting the 19-year-old at this stage of her career.
"I think there needs to be like a level of trust and respect between the players and the media. I also had problems earlier in my career where maybe certain things I said got taken out of context or joke that I might have made, you know, turned into big stories and big headlines where it turned things a bit sour and negative," Murray said.
The former World No. 1 also spoke about how Raducanu is still very young and her career is very much in its infancy. The Scotsman added that athletes, like any regular person, also make mistakes when they are coming up.
"Just let her be who she is, and you know, she might say some things that are a joke or maybe she doesn't mean or whatever. There's a few people in this room I'm sure when they were 18 or 19, made some mistakes and did some things they shouldn't have done and said some things they definitely shouldn't have said and athletes are the same. We will make mistakes and say the wrong things at time but just maybe don't judge us too harshly when we do that and I'm sure that would help Emma a little bit," Murray said.
- advice for Emma R 
)Dressing as a dragon🐉 - advice for Emma R 🎾
& getting nail inspiration from @harry_styles 💅
A few days ago I sat down with Sir @andy_murray.
(We did talk about Wimbledon too!🏆) https://t.co/retl0vseqc
"Practiced really well the last few weeks" - Andy Murray on his preparations for Wimbledon
Andy Murray's preparations for the 2022 Wimbledon Championships are going well, with the two-time SW19 champion reaching the final of the Stuttgart Open last week. The 35-year-old beat the likes of Stefanos Tsitsipas and Nick Kyrgios in back-to-back matches without dropping a set, before losing to Matteo Berrettini in the final.
Speaking about his preparations for the third Major of the year, the Scotsman said everything has gone well so far and is looking forward to playing more matches over the next few weeks.
"It's gone well so far, yeah. Practiced really well the last few weeks. We've been lucky with the weather for the most part. We've got a lot of time on the grass, so yeah, it's gone well, hopefully I can get a lot of matches in the next few weeks, Murray said."
A Murray Milestone 👏
@andy_murray reaches a 70th career final after defeating Kyrgios 7-6 6-2 in Stuttgart
#BOSSOPEN @theweissenhof https://t.co/8ji5w1qemv
The former World No. 1 was scheduled to take part at the Queen's Club Championships this week but had to pull out due to an abdominal injury.