Andy Murray and Alex Salmond working on tennis academy in Scotland – Tennis News
Scotland’s first minister, Alex Salmond, is working with the British number one tennis player, Andy Murray, and his mother, Judy Murray, to start a tennis academy in Scotland.
Murray wants government’s help to set up a national tennis academy, where talented junior players can be groomed and imparted training with latest techniques.
Salmond shared that he had a positive discussion with the reigning US Open champion and London Olympics gold medallist. The sports’ governing body in Scotland has also welcomed the plan which originally is Judy’s dream project.
Murray was given a hero’s welcome when he went to his home town, Dunblane, after winning his maiden Grand Slam title. The Brit became the first players from his country to win tennis Major in the last 76 years.
The 25-year-old said while taking to the media people during his visit, “One of the things that is missing is a focal point for tennis that a lot of the promising juniors can go to practice at and have the best coaching. I think
it would be nice if we could have a quality national tennis centre.”
On the other hand, Mr. Salmons revealed, “We had a positive discussion yesterday about their idea for a tennis academy which is certainly in line with the Scottish Government’s ambition to improve young Scots participation in sport.
We’ll be exploring this with the Murrays and their team over the next two months.”
Every person, who has some knowledge of sports, would know that the association has to work on the grass root level in order to groom players for future but this thing has always lacked in Scotland. Murray himself had no other
option but to go to Barcelona, Spain to get advance training.
The top British player’s heroics have resulted in huge improvement in tennis statistics in Scotland, with more and more youngsters starting to play the sport. From 2008 to 2011, number of juniors playing tennis regularly has increased
from 1,062 to 2,881.
These statistics will improve further in the recent months, as many more youngsters want to start playing tennis after Murray’s recent success. After losing in the final of four straight Grand Slams, Murray defeated Novak Djokovic
to capture this year’s US Open title.
Almost one month before that achievement, Murray became the first tennis players from his country to win an Olympics Gold Medal in the last 100 years. When he reached this year’s Wimbledon final, the Brit became the first participant
from his country to do that since 1938.
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