Judy Murray on the ‘damage’ Boris Becker comments caused after Andy Murray’s 2011 Aus Open loss

Shahida Jacobs
July 3, 2020

Judy Murray has lifted the veil on how comments Boris Becker made after her son Andy Murray’s 2011 Australian Open final defeat stopped her from leaving her home “for about three days”.

Playing in his second consecutive final at Melbourne Park, Andy again came up short as he was beaten 6–4, 6–2, 6–3 by Novak Djokovic.

After the match former world No 1 Becker suggested Andy needed to make changes to his entourage if he is to finally make the step up and win a first Grand Slam.

“He doesn’t need to make major changes but maybe there are a few details for the Grand Slams,” the German great said.

“Is it the right decision for his mother and the whole team to be around? Maybe he needs someone around who has won a Grand Slam.”

Judy hit back at Becker a few years telling Radio Times magazine: “I think if I were the dad of sons, I wouldn’t have been noticed.”

And now she again highlighted the damage Becker’s comments caused.

“I’m not sure I’ll ever forgive Boris Becker for that,” she told BBC Scotland’s Fair Play podcast.

“He’s never apologised. I don’t think he would ever understand what he made me feel like.

“I called him out on it a couple of years later. I thought it was right to let him know how much damage he had caused by doing something like that.”

Judy, who coached Andy as well as her eldest son Jamie early on in their careers, explained how she stayed indoors for “about three days” after Becker’s comments made headlines.

“I just saw this on the street outside where I live,” she recalled. “I went home, I didn’t go out for about three days and I really struggled with that.

“Boris Becker is such a huge figure in tennis and I thought, ‘people will think he knows what he’s talking about, they’re going to think that’s my fault’. And actually, I hardly ever went to the tournaments.

“Most players have their parents or their families with them at the Grand Slams. Those are the events where you need the most emotional support. It’s incredibly important.”

The 60-year-old former Great Britain Fed Cup captain says women are always held to a different standard, especially when it comes to sport.

She continued: “I came in for an awful lot of criticism simply for being a competitive woman who was pumping her fist watching her kid play in the same way that I had done all of his tennis playing life.

“I was being singled out by people who had never met me, never knew what we’d been through. It made me feel like there was something wrong with being a competitive mum, whereas if I’d been a competitive dad, you’d be applauded.”

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