Coco Gauff salutes Andy Murray as he promotes the call for more diversity in tennis

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Andy Murray press conference

Andy Murray has never been wary of voicing his opinion on contentious issues in tennis and he has joined the debate over the lack of diversity in the game.

Murray posted an interview on his Instgram account with former Wimbledon finalist MaliVai Washington, as he urged the game’s top organisations to have more BAME representation.

He highlighted a section of the feature which pointed out that none of the 24 board members across the two most important bodies in British tennis are from a black, Asian or minority ethnic backgroung and wrote: “Tennis in 2020” followed by a confused emoji.

Now teenager star Coco Gauff has saluted Murray for his role in speaking out on key issues in the sport, as she spoke at the Ostrava Open event.

“Nothing’s wrong with asking for more diversity. For him to say that is definitely inspiring, especially with him being a man and white,” stated Gauff.

“For someone like him to call for diversity, it shows how great an ally he is. I love what Andy is doing on and off the court. He’s one of my favourite players to watch.

“It’s important we do have diversity because there are people from all over the world from different backgrounds and areas. I think representation is important. At least for me, as a girl – seeing yourself being represented means a lot.”

For their part, the Lawn Tennis Association have made several statements vowing to bring more BAME representatives into key positions, if they can be attracted to the organisation.

“This is an ongoing process and we are building on the progress that has already been made as we develop our strategy for increasing diversity and driving real change in tennis,” said LTA chief Scott Lloyd earlier this year.

“We will share this with you, but I believe if such change is going to happen, then, as the national governing body for our sport, we have a clear responsibility to lead from the front.

“We are pushing on with what we know needs to change for us internally as an organisation. This includes changes to ways of working to embed inclusion and diversity throughout our approach. We canevising our recruitment policies and improving our approach to insight and data gathering to help to understand and inform decision-making.

“We have already established a steering group which includes external expertise to progress the work we need to do at pace and to ensure this issue remains right at the top of our agenda.

“I have made an update on this work a standing item for our weekly Executive Team meeting, as well as for every LTA Board meeting. That is a reflection of the absolute commitment to change that I know I share with our Chair, Mervyn Davies and our President, David Rawlinson.”

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