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Andy Murray is making bold retirement plans because tennis is proving more unpredictable. The former world No 1 has suggested he could become a golf caddie or football coach once he finally hangs up his racket.
Andy Murray did an interview last week with Gentleman’s Journal, which is not, contrary to what you might think, something you would stuff into an opaque bag having plucked it from the top shelf of a newsagent. It is a “men’s luxury lifestyle magazine for those who know”. Know what? Not sure. Anyway.
In the course of the interview, it did not take Murray long to start talking about his interests away from the court. After all this is Gentleman’s Journal, not Gentleman’s Singles, and they don’t necessarily want to hear about the merits of a two-handed backhand or serving to the body. Nevertheless, for a man who often does not give much away, he gave away rather a lot.
“I was getting up at 5.30am to do my gym sessions before the kids woke up,” he said, talking about trying to train for fitness. “I thought I would do my workouts when everyone else was sleeping. But I quickly realised I can’t do this every morning.”
It mirrored some of the things he ended up saying a few days later (but that were published earlier), when he was forced to withdraw from the Miami Open. Murray stressed he suspected the injury was minor, just a few weeks, but that a more serious one would really leave him considering his next move.
“I really just want to be on the court competing,” he said then. “I can’t be bothered doing another eight or 10 weeks of rehab. The reason I am doing all of that stuff is to get back on the court and compete.” The Gentleman’s Journal interview though, understood to have been conducted by video link mid-physio session, shows that creeping thought of “what if this is it” had already started to seep in.
Now Murray has always been a great thinker about sport as a whole, and to hear him say he fancies being a golf caddie is no great surprise. “Maybe there’s some crossover between the two sports from the mental side and things, and maybe so you might be able to help with a golfer – so that was something I thought would be fun or interesting. Or getting your coaching badges in football – that’s something that would be fun to do.”
Cycling too, something he could do to stay fit during lockdown. “I did really enjoy that – I think when I finish playing tennis. It is something I might… I really loved it,” Murray said. It would be dangerous to read too much into individual comments, but the way Murray has talked about his career, more often in the past tense of late than in the present, cannot be ignored.
Some players fail to prepare for retirement and life after professional sport, which is far longer than most careers, and Murray cannot be accused of doing that.
But we all know how hard he has tried to cling onto this career, through the surgeries and rehabs, and how much he does not want to give it up. Despite all these outside interests, tennis has been his whole life. Soon though, his own gentleman’s journal may soon contain a different entry.
“Today, reader, I retired.”
