The day after the golden afternoon before, a tea at Downing Street for Britain’s newest Wimbledon champion with the man who may recommend him for a knighthood.
This was the moment that changes the Scot's life for ever. But will it change British tennis for the better? Murray is the role model the game has been desperate for, raising smiles from the all England Club all the way to Lambeth.
-The best thing about Andy Murray, he inspires people to play tennis and do different sports.
-How about you?
-How he shows us how we can reach for our goals which we just believe.
-He has, he has good service.
But he knows that it would take more than one success to transform years of underperformance.
-Sorry. But that isn’t my job. There are people, you know, have to put things in place to give kids the opportunity to play and, you know, I hope yesday has done a small part towards achieving, you know, better results for British players in the future.
The Scot is the exception rather than the rule. He developed his talent outside the system that does not match his huge income with consistent results.
Andy Murray’s Wimbledon victory ended the longest losing streak in British sport. Challenge now for British tennis, is to capture the excitement generated by his win and create opportunities in places like this, beyond the sports, middle-class roots.
In 2012, the Lawn Tennis Association received 37.7 million pounds from Wimbledon’s profits, and 5.4 million pounds in public funding from Sport England. But participation among over-16s has fallen 15% in the last five years. Sport England has threatened to cut funding by 20% in future years.
The job really is to make sure that not just for the two weeks of Wimbledon but everyone stays on the tennis court; and that comes down to people that are here, the volunteers, the tennis coaches, are up and down the country, that inspires the kids to stay in the game all year round. And that’s the next stage for us.
Everyone uplifted by Murray’s triumph will hope they are right. But the next British Wimbledon champion doesn’t have to wait until the current one immortalized in bronze.
