Andy Murray to be given the ultimate Wimbledon honour that only one other person has | Tennis | Sport

Andy Murray will get a statue at Wimbledon to commemorate his legacy as the first British player to win the men’s singles title since Fred Perry. He achieved glory at the world’s most prestigious tournament in 2013 before repeating the feat three years later. It saw him become the first British champion in 77 years, with Perry the last player to do it way back in 1936.

Murray also won Olympic gold at the All England Club in 2012, cementing his legacy as Britain’s greatest talent in the modern era. He will be honoured with his very own statue, which is set to be revealed to the public in 2027 when Wimbledon celebrates its 150th anniversary. At the moment, Perry is the only player to have a full-body statue at SW19.

Debbie Jevans, chairwoman of the All England Club, revealed the news during an appearance on the ainslie + ainslie Performance People podcast.

She said: “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?

“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.

“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 him and his team will be.”

It will see Murray join Perry as the only two players to be honoured with a full-body statue at Wimbledon. There is also a sculpture called Serving Ace Meeting Tree, a huge bronze piece surrounded by foxgloves and green ferns.

SW19 is also home to head-and-shoulder statues of Kitty Godfree, Dorothy Round, Angela Mortimer, Ann Jones and Virginia Wade, the five British women to have won Wimbledon.

Reflecting on his first triumph in 2013, Murray said that he was simply relieved because he thought he would have gone down as a failure without claiming his home Grand Slam.

Speaking two years ago, he said: “Probably about five or six days after the final, it started to sink in and I started to enjoy it. I went away on holiday with my wife, we went to Barbados. It was just the two of us who went away.

“I was able to start processing everything. The few days building up to the final and then the days after the final, I found that all unbelievably stressful and really, really tiring. There was just relief.

“I do genuinely believe that a lot of people would have viewed my career as being a failure had I not managed to win Wimbledon. Yeah, it was sort of one of those things where it was obviously amazing to win Wimbledon but it had almost been built up to me.”