COME ON ANDY! FREE HAT INSIDE
He says: ‘Now tennis is distraction’... as partners square up for showdown
HE WILL walk into the pressure- cooker atmosphere of Centre Court today carrying the hopes of the nation as hot favourite to win a second Wimbledon title.
But Andy Murray has admitted that as a proud new father, his family is now more important than the prestige of a Grand Slam final.
Reflecting on his first championships since wife Kim gave birth to their daughter Sophia in February, Murray said: ‘For the first time ever, tennis is probably more of a distraction from my home life than the other way around.
‘Experiencing the Wimbledon fortnight as a parent has been different because now I have a family to get home to.
‘Beforehand, in the build-up to a Slam final, I’d always just be thinking about that match. I don’t feel like that just now – I’m just looking forward to the next time I see Sophia and Kim.’
An expected worldwide television audience of 18million and a Centre Court crowd of 15,000 will watch Murray, 29, play his 11th major final – th this time against Canadian sixt sixth seed Milos Raonic.
B But while Kim, 28, is likely to t take her usual seat in the pla players’ box, the girlfriend of R Raonic – swimwear model Da Danielle Knudson, 25 – will be cheering her man on from a distance as she is on a modelling shoot abroad.
After Raonic knocked out Roger Federer in a thrilling semi-final on Friday, Danielle posted a video of herself applauding while she watched the match on a screen.
Yesterday, Murray was practising on one of Wimbledon’s outside courts but had to secure his wedding ring to one of his shoelaces because catching it on his racquet gives him blisters.
With Murray’s arch-rival Novak Djokovic was surprisingly knocked out earlier in the championships, this may be Murray’s best chance to win a second Wimbledon title and edge closer to British great Fred Perry’s three triumphs.
Murray said: ‘Opportunities will probably be few and far between and I need to be ruthless. That’s something I speak to my coach Ivan Lendl about. Let’s hope I can finish the job.’
After a breakfast of a bagel with scrambled eggs, half a bagel with peanut butter, a whole cantaloupe melon plus a banana-and-berry smoothie, Murray will be driven from his £6.5 million mansion in Oxshott, Surrey, to the All England Club in South-West London at about 10.30am. If Kim brings along their daughter, then Sophia will have to stay in the creche during the match as children under the age of five are not allowed courtside.
Murray said: ‘Sophia’s already watched a bit of tennis with Kim at home over these last couplep of weeks and maybe when she’she’s older she’ll want to come and see me play.
‘I would like that. It woulduld be nice for me in a selfish ish way. I’m sure she won’t be that interested but it gives ves me a little bit of extra motivation to keep going when I get a bit older.’
Murray’s grandmotherer Shirley Erskine told The he Mail on Sunday: ‘Sophiaia gives Andy a distractionon from tennis. I absolutelyy think it’s been good for him m – she doesn’t know a thingg about tennis.
‘She doesn’t mind thee crowds at Wimbledon onee bit. So when he gets off the court he has Sophia to concentrate on. He absolutely dotes on her.’
Murray won’t be the onlyy Brit battling for glory at Wimbledon today. Heather r Watson will be playing in the mixed doubles final with Henri Kontinen after fter the men’s singles has finished.