Abu Dhabi: Judy Murray’s softly spoken Scottish accent masks a fierce passion to succeed, much like her inherently shy world number six son Andy, who is often an animated figure on the court in triumph or adversity.
These characteristics are exhibited when television cameras capture Murray’s face contorted with raw emotion — in exhortation or anguish — when she watches Andy in action.
Like the British men’s number one, the relentlessly driven Murray does not countenance failure and is an innate perfectionist — which explains her creditable showing on Britain’s smash-hit television series ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ at the end of 2014.
The show involves celebrities learning to dance with professional dancers, and Murray, whose eldest son, Jamie, is Britain’s number two doubles player, admitted: “I wasn’t very musical, so I learned very slowly and wasn’t very good at it.”
Yet through dogged persistence, Murray and her partner Anton du Beke defied the odds and were not voted out of the show until week eight.
Such grit and determination are essential qualities in Murray’s quest to address the poverty of British women’s tennis through a new scheme called ‘Miss-Hits’.
This is aimed at boosting the number of young girls playing tennis in the UK and increasing the amount of women’s coaches through fun and relaxed activities and sessions.
While her son — a two-time grand slam champion — has been the standard bearer for men’s tennis in Britain for the past decade, players of the opposite sex have failed to match his major-winning magnificence.
Heather Watson is Britain’s highest-ranked player in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings at 49 — and, at the time of writing, likely to be the only woman from the UK taking part in next week’s Australian Open.
Meanwhile, Laura Robson, arguably the country’s greatest women’s prospect and a London 2012 Olympics mixed doubles silver medallist with Murray junior, has seen her ranking plummet to below 900 after a year out with a wrist injury.
There are few hot prospects emerging, either, which is of immense concern to Murray, who is captain of Britain’s women’s Fed Cup team.
Of her new venture, Murray told Gulf News: “Three years ago I had the chance to become the Fed Cup captain for GB, and after my first Fed Cup in February 2012 I realised we have very little strength in depth on the women’s side. I started to look down at the junior girls coming through and I realised there were very few girls playing at a good level. And, when you got right down at the under-10s, you realised actually the issue there are not enough girls getting into the game.
“I thought if we were to have a chance of winning anything like the Fed Cup, we need strength in depth and need to start at the bottom.”
She continued: “We did a lot of research about why girls are not going into tennis or being turned off by tennis early and into what little girls like doing and the things they engage with. And dance is a big thing and animated characters is a big thing, as well as girly nail stickers.
“I created a programme, which is a 12-week programme and a precursor to mini-tennis, which basically brings girls together in a group. For girls, it [sport] is a social thing. They like to go with their friends, which is why dance is so popular and they like music, which is lively and fun.
“I created this programme based around six animated characters, which is backed up by a website and an app. The app teaches you to play games and shows introductions to competitions. It teaches them how to keep the score by playing with the characters.
“It’s all fun — that’s how kids learn nowadays.”
Launched last August, ‘Miss-Hits’ is also striving to tackle a dearth of quality coaches in Britain.
Murray added: “We have trained up 80 coaches so far. The website and app launched this month, so it’s kind of all go. We need something to make our sport more attractive to little girls.
“But also we need to build a bigger female coaching workforce. The course is not a technical course and you don’t need a major qualification to do it. You just need a passion for the game and an enjoyment of working with children. We are trying to tap into other workforces such as teaching and other sports and teach them [the trainee coaches] how to deliver.”
How does Murray, who won 64 junior and senior titles as a player in Scotland, assess the current state of the women’s game in Britain?
She said: “Laura [Robson] has been out for a long time, which is very difficult and frustrating for her. She’s a very promising player, she’s very strong.
“She will be 22 at the end of January, but she’s still young, and has to come through this difficult period of rehabilitation and get back to match fitness again.”
Murray added: “Heather Watson is hovering around 50 in the world and is a great defender and a great server. She’s a great competitor and it will be interesting to see if she can make that next jump from 50 to 30.
“Beyond that, we don’t have huge strength in depth. This is one of the reasons for the programme. It won’t bear fruit overnight.
“But if we tackle it well and increase the number of girls coming in and learning to love the game and we have more female coaches, we can become a stronger female nation.”
Murray is also interested in cultivating new talent in the UAE, having enjoyed holding coaching clinics at the recent Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi.
“I could see myself doing that,” she said. “It doesn’t really matter what anyone throws in front of me.”
