Wimbledon season is well underway, with The Championships heading into their last week of action and the finals in sight over the weekend. One person who’s all too familiar with the event is tennis legend Sir Andy Murray. Last week, he arrived as a spectator rather than a player and watched some of the action alongside another familiar face – The Princess of Wales.
The Princess made a surprise appearance on Thursday (2 July), delighting tennis fans who were queueing outside the grounds. She even worked a short stint on the ticket desk before taking her seat in the stands. Speaking to Good Housekeeping, Andy Murray described their day together as ‘great’ and ‘good fun’. He said, ‘I’ve spent a little bit of time with her before. I know she obviously loves her sport, loves her tennis and has come along to Wimbledon a lot of times. I was asked to go and watch one of the matches with her the other day and it was good fun.’
Sir Andy said that, during their day at Wimbledon together, the pair exchanged parenting stories. ‘We’ve obviously both got quite a few kids, so a lot to chat about that,’ he said. The Prince and Princess of Wales have three children (Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis) while Sir Andy Murray shares four children (Sophia, Edie, Teddy and Lola) with his wife, Kim.
The Princess of Wales has brought Prince George and Princess Charlotte to Wimbledon in previous years, although the youngest, Prince Louis, is yet to attend. Sir Andy said the children enjoy tennis, along with another more surprising sport. ‘I got the feeling that they’re quite sporty,’ he said. ‘They’ve been to watch [tennis] before. I think they play a little bit, [and] a little bit of padel.’ Padel is a relatively new phenomenon in the world of racquet sports. It combines a mix of tennis, squash and badminton and is becoming increasingly popular, although it tends to be enjoyed mostly by adults – including Sir Andy.
He explains that he enjoys the sport and that his competitive streak is still in tact. ‘When I play golf with my friends or padel, I’m still very competitive,’ he said. Sir Andy revealed golf is a favourite sport of his these days and admitted, ‘I don’t play that much tennis anymore.’ He will, however, sometimes play with his children, who are – like the Prince and Princess of Wales’ kids – very sporty. ‘They play football and hockey and netball, so I just mix in with all the things that they’re doing and try and stay active that way.’
Now, Andy is off the court as a professional player, he’s most likely to be found standing on the sidelines as a coach. Reflecting on his day at Wimbledon with the Princess of Wales, Sir Andy said he doesn’t ‘often go and watch the tennis much,’ but that he ‘enjoyed obviously watching the match with her’ and liked ‘seeing the event from a different perspective’. More used to life at the centre of the action rather than from the stands, Sir Andy has been adjusting to life as a spectator and has now taken part in a fun campaign around etiquette with Walker’s Shortbread.
In a tongue-in-cheek campaign video with the Scottish brand (watch above), Sir Andy runs through some common mistakes spectators make while watching Wimbledon. As the new ‘spectator coach’, he runs through some of the distracting things crowds are guilty of, such as popping champagne corks and eating loud snacks – he recommends eating a Walker’s Shortbread biscuit instead, of course.
