Wimbledon to unveil Andy Murray statue for 150th anniversary, two-time champ will help design sculpture of himself

Indian Express

2 days ago

Two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray will receive a rare and unique honour at the iconic Wimbledon Championships, with achievements at his home Grand Slam set to be recognised by the organisers in two years during the All England Club's 150th anniversary.
Talks about honouring Murray at the prestigious championships were floated as early as 2013 when he became the first British man in 77 years since Fred Perry to win the men's singles title, defeating then-World No. 1 Novak Djokovic. Murray doubled his tally, three years later, making the grass-court tournament his most favoured Grand Slam.
Murray will certainly feel a personal touch to the honour. The Scot is set to assist in the design of the full-length sculpture of himself. Wimbledon director Debbie Jevans said that they decided to go ahead with the special project after recently witnessing 22-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal celebrated at the French Open with his footprint inscribed on a permanent plaque at the iconic Court Philippe-Chatrier.
'We looked at Rafa Nadal having that sort of plaque unveiled to him at Roland Garros which was all very special.
'We thought: 'What do we want for Andy?'' said Jevans on the Performance People podcast.
'We had a great celebration for Andy when he played his last match, which was on Centre Court.
'And then when he came, when all the old players came and they greeted him and Sue Barker interviewed him. So we did a similar thing for him here last year but we are looking to have a statue of Andy Murray here and we're working closely with him and his team.
'And the ambition is that we would unveil that on the 150th anniversary of our first championships, which was 1877, so would be in 2027.
'It will be lovely and really special. So he's got to rightly be very involved in that and he and his team will be,' said Jevans.
Wimbledon is simply continuing its rich tradition of commemorating its home champions. This includes a full-length statue dedicated to Fred Perry and a bust honouring Virginia Wade. Recognition has also been extended to Kitty Godfree, who claimed the first of her two Wimbledon titles in 1924, along with Dorothy Round, Angela Mortimer, and Ann Jones.
It is a season of commemorations for the 38-year-old. Earlier this month, Murray was part of the unveiling of the Andy Murray Arena when the Queen's Club decided to name its centre-court after the former five-time champion. 'It was my most successful event; I always love coming back here at the start of the British summer. I'm very proud of the results I had here. I'm very grateful and thankful for whoever it was who decided to name the stadium this was,' Murray said.