Andy Murray admits ‘guilt has gone’ as he opens up on life after tennis
Andy Murray admits he feared retirement from tennis, but the reality has been very different.
Great Britain’s Davis Cup team return to action this week for the first time since Murray retired from tennis at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, with the talisman who carried them to glory in the 2015 edition of the competition leaving a big hole in their team.
Jack Draper has quickly emerged as the new leader of the British team that will take on Finland, Argentina and Canada in Manchester this week, with Murray’s legacy shining through with his inspiration inspiring a new collection of star names in British tennis.
Yet the hole he expected to find in his life after hanging up his rackets has not become a reality, as he told the BBC he is relishing his new life as a father and a family man.
“Since I’ve stopped, I feel really free and have got lots of time to do whatever it is I want,” Murray told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“I can dedicate time to my children and have free time to play golf or go to the gym on my own terms.
“It is really nice and I didn’t expect that. I was expecting to find retirement hard and be missing tennis a lot and wanting to get back on the tennis court on tour.
“So far it has been the complete opposite to what I was thinking.
“The thing that I always found difficult in recent years was that there was always a guilt associated with what I was doing.
“If I was going away for a trip of like three to four weeks I would feel guilty leaving my children at home or being away from my wife for a long time with them, so missing the kids I found hard.
“But if I was at home with the kids then I was running around and spending a lot of my time on my feet after training.
“I was then thinking ‘is this going to affect my training or performance the next day, should I have my feet up?’ I found that stuff difficult over the last few years.”
Murray also spoke about the weight of expectations he felt playing as a Brit at Wimbledon, with criticism hard to accept.
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“It was really hard for me at times, reaching the final at Wimbledon and being criticised for your work or feeling you are not good enough,” he added.
“Which I think is wrong and I don’t know if that would be the case in every country.
“It might have not been the case, but my perception was I was feeling I was being attacked even when I was doing really well, and that was pretty hard.”
Murray is now working hard on his golf game and says he is determined to get down to a scratch handicap.
