Captain Murray Ready For Play in Her First Fed Cup Tie

Written by: Staff on 1st February 2012

Captain Murray Ready For Play in Her First Fed Cup Tie

Andy Murray of Britain tips his hat in the extreme heat during his match against Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 23 January 2012. EPA/BARBARA WALTON |

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Judy Murray is as passionate about tennis as her son Andy, and she will be deadly serious as she attempts to guide Britain out of the lower leagues of the Fed Cup as they take on Portugal, the Netherlands and host nation Israel in Europe/Africa Zone I group matches this week.

But she has also instilled a relaxed feel among the players, an interesting and promising combination of the experienced in Elena Baltacha and Anne Keothavong, and the junior Grand Slam winning pair of Laura Robson and Heather Watson.

Robson has discovered a love of darts, a sport once more associated with men with large stomachs competing in smoke-filled pubs than with young female athletes. She has even brought along a dart board for the girls to relax with between matches and practice sessions.

“I always watch darts on TV,” said Robson. “I don’t have a favorite player, I just like watching. I find it amazing the amount of pressure they’re under to make exactly the right shot at the right time. You can see that they start to shake sometimes. Hopefully we don’t do that when we’re playing. I try not to anyway. You can learn a lot from a darts player.”

“You have to be firm and disciplined but you can get a lot of messages through to players through fun,” said Murray. “Laura and Heather, they’re good for the game and great for each other. Very endearing personalities, too, with a great sense of fun.”

Meanwhile, it appears that everything is proceeding well in Andy’s camp in relation to his coaching partnership with Ivan Lendl. Judy did not watch her son’s thrilling Australian Open semi-final against Novak Djokovic, but did later hear from his coach.

“I had a really nice email from Ivan Lendl saying he was so proud of Andy’s effort and of how he’d fought,” said Judy. “Ivan’s had a great impact already and it’s great for Andy to have someone with his leadership and direction, a voice of experience who knows what it’s like to be in that situation. It’s a tremendous, positive start to the year for them and I feel really good about that.”

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