Supreme Court called it right on what makes a woman, says Judy Murray, as she welcomes 'common sense' ruling
The tennis coach and mother of Wimbledon champions Sir Andy and Jamie is well known for advocating 'fairness and safety' for women in sport.
But in 2022 she faced a backlash when she criticised the prospect of professional golfer Hailey Davidson, of Ayrshire, becoming the first transgender woman to earn a Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tour card.
Reacting to an article about the 32-year-old's attempt, Mrs Murray tweeted: 'No. Not fair at all. Protect women's sport. Listen to the facts, the scientists and the medics. This is wrong.'
She defended her comments, saying her point was 'purely from a perspective of women's sport and protecting the fairness of competition for girls and women'.
The 65-year-old has now hailed April's ruling on what defines a woman under equalities laws.
In an interview with The Scotsman, she said: 'The ruling for me was just common sense. And welcome back, common sense.'
Mrs Murray said: 'There have always been categories in sport and they're there to ensure fairness and safety.'
Her comments come a year after she backed JK Rowling by urging her to 'preach' following a series of savage social media posts against Scotland's hate crime law as the Harry Potter author warned against 'dismantling' women's rights.
Mrs Murray, who is celebrating the release of her new book, Game, Set and Murder, about the mysterious death of a tennis coach, established the Judy Murray Foundation in 2018 to improve accessibility to sports, particularly for young and female athletes.
Meanwhile, gender critical campaigners have sent a further 'letter before action' to the Scottish Government, about access to toilets in government properties.
Sex Matters want action by next Wednesday.
The group calls on the government to state that 'all facilities designated as male or female within the Scottish Government estate are to be interpreted as meaning biological sex, and that gender-neutral options are widely available'.
Tory MSP Tess White said: 'The SNP Government must stop dragging its heels. The Supreme Court ruling was crystal clear.'
The Scottish Government has previously said it accepts the Supreme Court ruling.
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Daily Mail
33 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Super Sonay! Emma Raducanu's great childhood rival - and daughter of kebab shop owner - steps out of her shadow with a big win
They grew up as tennis rivals, fiercely playing against each other at the National Tennis Centre in 2011 as nine-year-olds. But breakout star Sonay Kartal looks to be finally stepping out from under the shadow of her famous friend Emma Raducanu as she soared into the last 16 at SW19 for the first time yesterday. The 23-year-old wildcard eased past French qualifier Diane Parry with a flawless straight set 6-4, 6-2 victory. Meanwhile British No 1 Ms Raducanu was in action against number one seed Aryna Sabalenka on Centre Court last night. She was again cheered on by former tennis prodigy Benjamin Heynold, 24, with rumours of a possible romance between the pair continuing to spread. Ms Kartal said it was an 'honour' to be one of three Britons still standing at Wimbledon – despite a record start at SW19 for the nation with 23 home players – after Cameron Norrie also booked his place in the fourth round by defeating Mattia Bellucci in straight sets. Coming from humble beginnings in Brighton where her parents ran a kebab shop, rising star Ms Kartal is now on the brink of becoming a millionaire. If she makes the quarter finals she will have clocked up £400,000 in prize money – she has already pocketed £240,000 by making the fourth round, bringing her total career earnings to £972,000. Ms Kartal, who is 5ft 4in tall, vowed to come out swinging in her next match against the World No 50, Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, tomorrow. Talking about how she would handle the pressure, Ms Kartal said: 'I enjoy it. I think it's an honour. Obviously, you've got a lot of attention on you, it means you're doing good things. 'I feel like I'm going to go out on the court in the next round kind of with nothing to lose at the minute. 'I'm going to go swinging. I think the pressure that I'll feel is the pressure I will be putting on myself just wanting to perform as best as I can.' Ms Kartal said her 'closest family' was in her box on Court One cheering her on while her 'club members that I've known since I was six' were in the stands. 'That was super special,' she said. 'I couldn't necessarily see them, but I could hear a lot of familiar voices in the crowd, which was definitely nice.' Born in Sidcup, Kent, to Clare and Muharrem Kartal, she had a modest upbringing in Brighton where her father owned two Turkish restaurants. She started playing when she was six by following her brother to a training session after an invitation from a coach who ate in their father's restaurant. Earlier this week the player spoke out about how her family could not afford a full-time coach and that she was forced to go to some of the tournaments herself while her coaches undercharged her to help out. The British No 3 said: 'Obviously tennis is super expensive. When I was growing up, I kind of did quite a lot of tournaments on my own because I couldn't afford to pay a coach week in, week out. 'My coaches back in the day, they would charge me I guess the lowest fee and would try to help me out as much as possible.' While Ms Raducanu was riding high after her US Open win, Ms Kartal had little support until she received LTA backing aged 19 which meant she received Pro Scholarship Programme funding. Ms Kartal has previously said that she sees her former rival as an inspiration. 'I grew up playing Emma, so it proves to me that the dream of making it in tennis is not too far away,' she said. The British hopeful also saw her career blighted by injuries in her teenage years – a wrist problem from the ages of 14 to 17 left her struggling to pick up a racket, which was followed by two abdominal tears. Speaking about the difficulties of those years, Ms Kartal said last night: 'It was a bit hit or miss. I was injured for a few years on and off. I kind of never really got consistent. 'I was still playing at the club I'm at today down in Brighton. I was playing national events, the LTA events, doing the nationals for each age group. 'Then I would just go missing a little bit because I'd have an injury or something like that. So it was never consistent.' Ms Kartal's success this week has seen her rankings soar – this time last year she was just inside the top 300 in the world but now she sits in 51st place, and is likely to rise further. As well as being applauded for her impressive run at SW19, Ms Kartal, who has 14 tattoos, is also being hailed as a trendsetter with her throwback 70s baggy Adidas kit. After her win yesterday, she invited fans to make suggestions for designs her 15th tattoo to mark her impressive run. 'If people want to send me their ideas, I will most likely pick one of them and will probably chuck it on somewhere,' she said.
BBC News
36 minutes ago
- BBC News
'Hard to take' but Raducanu draws confidence from defeat
The sense of disappointment on Emma Raducanu's face as she exited Centre Court stemmed only from the knowledge that she had gone so British number one was under no illusion about her task as she stepped out under the roof to a raucous reception before facing the world's best women's player, Aryna Sabalenka, on Friday producing one of her best displays in recent times to sweep aside 2023 champion Marketa Vondrousova in the previous round, Raducanu hit the heights she knew she must was not enough on this the two hours which unfolded proved beyond doubt that Raducanu is ready to take the next step on her road back to the top, and begin challenging the biggest names for the biggest prizes."It's hard to take a loss like that. At the same time, I'm playing Aryna, who is a great champion. I have to be proud of my effort today," reflected a tearful Raducanu."It does give me confidence because I think the problem before was that I felt like I was gulfs away from the very top."The former US Open champion went toe-to-toe with - and frequently outplayed - a three-time major winner who has held the number one ranking for the past nine months, and reached five finals in the past six Grand Slams she has a captivating contest, Raducanu had the best part of 15,000 spectators gripped as she ensured the potential for a major shock never quite disappeared until the very said it herself before the match: she needs to bridge the gap to the very was a huge step towards achieving that in her on-court interview, Sabalenka said she expects Raducanu to return to the top 10 "soon".The Belarusian later added: "She's fighting. She's playing much better. She's more consistent. "I can see that mentally she's healthy. I think that's really important. Yeah, I'm pretty sure she's getting there." The sense that Raducanu could push Sabalenka was not founded solely in her impressive start at the All England Club, but also in her increasingly positive demeanour on the joy has returned to the 22-year-old's game, and it is all the more complete for was evident at the Miami Open in March, where former British number one Mark Petchey first joined her coaching team on an informal basis, as she showed immense fight against Emma Navarro to record only her third win over a top-10 has praised Petchey's influence - this week giving him an "11 out of 10" for his work - and said a conversation about their future relationship will take place once "the dust settles" before the start of the hard court recently, in her own words, a "free and expressive" Raducanu competed with a near-permanent smile on her face as she joined forces with Katie Boulter in the doubles at Queen' was another reminder of her new outlook when she raised the microphone to the crowd during her post-match interview on Wednesday, as they serenaded her with encouragement as she discussed the prospect of taking on was clear in the intensity and determination with which she continued to compete despite the setbacks that came against the top again when, teary-eyed in her news conference, she joked that her way of dealing with the defeat was to eat a chocolate bar in the locker room."It's going to take me a few days to process. But at the same time it really motivates me," Raducanu said."It could be a good thing that I want to get straight back to work because [my game is] not far [off]. There's still a lot of things that I want to do better, a lot of things I want to improve to really solidify my game so that in the big moments I can back myself a little bit more." It is the positive manner of her defeat that sets Raducanu up for what comes next in her qualifier who stunned the world with her triumph in New York four years ago has proven that she thrives on the biggest was not overawed by this occasion, carrying the weight of the British number one tag at Wimbledon amid an electric atmosphere, with the crowd eager to celebrate her every did not shrink when the tough moments inevitably arrived, withstanding seven set points in the first set and showing the resolve to go again in the second, each further proof that she is moving in the right the years since her fairytale US Open triumph, she has had wrist and ankle operations, endured injury setbacks, contended with increased expectations and tried to compete despite consistent changes to her coaching set time last year, she was ranked 135th as she continued to rebuild her career, climbing back from outside the top 300 to return to the top the next step on her road back to the top of the sport is competing with, and overcoming, opponents like fell to former world number one Iga Swiatek at both the Australian Open and French Open earlier this year - winning just four games across as many sets - to highlight the gulf that this was the acid test of Raducanu 2.0's progress - and the results were encouraging."I think when I look back at my career, I'm really going to remember that match because you play for those moments, to really be competing toe-to-toe with anyone, but especially with the very best," Raducanu said."I think I did make good progress in the last few months, 100%, with the consistency and the work I've been doing. "I need to still keep doing more of the same."
Daily Mail
43 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
QUENTIN LETTS: Step forward Comrades Corbyn and Sultana! It demands a special sort of dimness and self regard to make such a bungle of the launch of a new political party
Historians may – or, there again, may not – record that the Left's tectonic plates shifted at 8.11pm on Thursday. That was when Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana pressed the button on her electronic device and posted a message on X to say she was quitting Labour to 'co-lead the founding of a new party' with Jeremy Corbyn. 'The time is now,' announced Comrade Sultana, 31. 'We are not going to take this any more. In 2029 the choice will be stark: socialism or barbarism.' Barbarism! The balloon had gone up. Leftist civil war had been declared. It was 'action stations' and 'en garde' and 'red alert', with the emphasis on the red. A Leftist breakaway movement had been expected for months, rumours building like summer thunder clouds. On Wednesday evening, with Labour rocked by parliamentary divisions over welfare cuts and with crisis surrounding the future of that leaky bucket Rachel Reeves, Mr Corbyn revealed an inch of ankle on ITV. Interviewer Robert Peston asked the former Labour leader – who was ejected from his old party by his onetime lieutenant Sir Keir Starmer – if he was really going to start a new party. The Che Guevara of Islington North stroked his beardlet, sat back on his sofa with just a hint of prosperous tummy, and replied that there was 'a thirst' for such a venture and more would be disclosed anon. Twenty-four hours later young Zarah had activated the fission. Kaboom. The Great Leftist Split had been triggered. Or perhaps not. As yesterday's brave new dawn broke in north London it became evident that a small mushroom cloud had formed over Islington. Mr Corbyn, 76, had exploded in the most terrible bate. Ms Sultana, with youthful impatience, had jumped the gun. The dramatic reveal had been bungled. In political terms it was a case of what old-fashioned doctors used to call ejaculatio praecox. Despite Ms Sultana's 'the time is now' claim, the time was meant to have been later, possibly on the eve of the Labour Party conference in the autumn when it might have had considerably more impact. But now the semi-secret was out, and it was running up and down the cloisters of Westminster with nothing to cover its modesty. They may be socialist egalitarians but Lefties are just as good at hating each other as Brexity Right-wingers. If anything, they do it with less humour. You only had to look at the sulphurous scenes in the Commons during Tuesday's welfare debate. Even after the Government had caved in, Labour MPs such as Andy McDonald, Imran Hussain and Ian Lavery were foul to the Government. What they now must think of Zarah Sultana, one dreads to think. To launch a political party is quite something. To bungle the launch of one is even more of an achievement. It demands a special type of dimness, muddle and vaunting self-regard. Ms Sultana seems to have thought herself a sufficiently big raisin to break the news herself, only to have her veteran co-conspirator rage at her impetuosity. Once he had recovered his equilibrium Mr Corbyn himself issued a message on X yesterday lunchtime to say that 'real change is coming' (NB not yet) and that Ms Sultana would 'help us build a real alternative' to Labour. You will notice that is not quite the same as confirming that she would be 'co-leading' the thing. Mr Corbyn's message added that 'the democratic foundations of a new kind of party will soon take shape'. Translation: you can forget about calling yourself a co-leader, young lady, until you have been voted as such by the new party's rank and file members. This new party does not yet have a public name so for the time being we should perhaps call it The People's Front of Judaea. This is not some jibe at Ms Sultana and Mr Corbyn's trenchant, some might say excessive, support for Palestinian independence. The People's Front of Judaea is the knot of political obsessives in Monty Python's Life Of Brian film, set in 1st century AD Jerusalem. When asked if they are the Judaean People's Front, or indeed the Popular Front, these scowling nutters become infuriated. 'The only people we hate more than the Romans are the f****** Judaean People's Front!' spits the ringleader, Reg. These days Reg might possibly be called Jeremy. Monty Python's satire harpoons the fragmentising nature of party politics. With each bifurcation, each indignant walk-out by politicians in proud possession of their most precious principles, movements become smaller and rivalries only increase. Eventually you end up with tiny cabals of harrumphing prigs who are more concerned about their pet causes than they are in trying to form a broad party that might, to quote the Book of Common Prayer, allow the country to be 'godly and quietly governed'. Quietness, however, is not really Zarah Sultana's thing. When she speaks in the House of Commons it is invariably in an urgent, tremulous voice, as if she needs to dash to the lavatory the moment her speech has ended. This one is a quavery commissar, making blood-curdling accusations about capitalism and Zionism and – dark organ chords, please – the dreaded Tories. Anyone who is not as Left-wing as her is, as she might say, 'barbaric'. All this is tremendously lively on social media feeds. She flies off the bat in a TikTok video or what-have-you. But in the flesh, for anything more than a 30-second burst, its rigid insistence can become tiresome. Mr Corbyn may have a public reputation for political extremism but in the flesh he is a less intense personality. He is softly spoken, can occasionally be droll, even charming. I'd say it is not impossible that, while he probably admires Sister Zarah's energy, he finds her rather exhausting. As might the voters. Put it like this: you would not want to share a space rocket with Zarah Sultana. She'd hog the oxygen. And this, perhaps, is the delusional weakness of modern politics and may explain the atomisation of both Left (Labour's vote being eaten into by independents, by George Galloway's Workers Party and soon by the Corbyn start-up) and Right (the Conservatives have been lopped in half by Nigel Farage's Reform).
