- The 38-year-old was the first British man to win singles’ title since Fred Perry
- Calls for his statue have come from icons like John McEnroe and Bille Jean King
- Murray was recently honoured with the centre court naming at Queen’s Club
Andy Murray will play a role in designing his statue at Wimbledon, which is planned to be unveiled in time for the Championships’ 150th anniversary in 2027.
The two-time Wimbledon champion achieved three of his career peaks on the All England Club’s iconic Centre Court, including his 2012 Olympic gold-medal win.
Discussions about how the club should commemorate the Briton’s triumphs have been ongoing since Murray won his first Wimbledon in 2013 and became the first British man since Fred Perry 77 years prior to win the Grand Slam on home soil.
In 2019, Wimbledon’s then-chief executive Richard Lewis shared that plans were in the works and that there had never been ‘any doubt’ that Murray would receive a statue.
As Murray began the process of calling time on his playing career last summer, tennis greats John McEnroe and Billie Jean King were among those to voice their support of the commemoration, with the former suggesting that the 38-year-old was a meaningful choice for ‘changing the way people look at British tennis’.
Now, current chairman Debbie Jevans has shed light on the plans, and revealed how the recent celebration of Rafael Nadal’s unmatched legacy at the French Open had sharpened focus in SW19.
‘We looked at Rafa Nadal having that sort of plaque unveiled to him at Roland Garros which was all very special,’ Jevans told the Performance People podcast. ‘We thought: “What do we want for Andy?”
‘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.’
Perry received a statue on the grounds of the All England Club which was unveiled in 1984, while the last British woman to win the singles’ title, Virginia Wade, was honoured with a bust in 2004.
Two-time champions Kitty Godfree and Dorothy Round, and former winners Angela Mortimer and Ann Jones have also received tributes.
At the start of the women’s tournament at the Queen’s Club in June, Murray was present for the inauguration of the historic venue’s centre court, renamed in his honour.
The one-time coach of his old rival Novak Djokovic was on typically dry form for the unveiling of the Andy Murray Arena, saying that he was very grateful for ‘whoever it was that decided to name the stadium’.
‘This tournament, was where I won my first match on the ATP Tour, it was my most successful event, and I always loved coming back here at the start of the British summer,’ Murray added.
