Kim Murray: ‘It will be lovely to have Andy at home – God knows I need the help with the children’
Kim Murray has just finished speaking to her husband on the phone when I meet her at a hotel near her home in Leatherhead, Surrey. It is Wednesday morning, the day after Andy Murray’s tense, thrilling victory with Dan Evans catapulted the pair into the (ultimately doomed) quarter finals of the men’s doubles at the Paris Olympics, and an exultant Andy was keen to share the love with his family.
Yet Kim, his wife of nearly a decade, is far removed from the bubble of adulation he enjoys when on tour.
“He’s walking down this street in Paris, everyone is trying to take selfies with him, but I was in the middle of a nit crisis with my eight-year-old daughter Sophia,” she explains. “So I didn’t have much time to talk.”
“The match finished late, the children are exhausted. Sophia has only just got into watching him on TV and can’t contain her emotions. So watching Andy play tennis is now even more stressful than before.”
Two days later, the dream is over. Andy and Evans crashed out after losing 6-2, 6-4 in straight sets to American pair Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz, bringing to a profoundly emotional end the dazzling career of Britain’s greatest living sportsman.
Andy was visibly distraught and even Clare Balding choked up. Later, Andy would quip on social media that he “never even liked tennis anyway”.
