CNN’s ‘Open Court’ traveled to Dunblane, Scotland, to speak with defending Wimbledon champion Andy Murray about opening his new hotel and giving back to the Dunblane community. The programme also spoke with Murray’s grandparents, Roy and Shirley Eskine, who have lived in the small Scottish city for nearly 50 years and were blown away by the support they experienced last summer, following Murray’s Wimbledon win.
On purchasing The Cromlix House, Murray says:
I came here for my brother’s wedding and about six months -a year later -we were told that the hotel was going out of business and the property was for sale. And I mean it’s 5 minutes from my house and I thought it would be a nice thing to do.
On the exciting time following Murray’s Wimbledon win, Murray’s grandparents say:
People were shouting out of the houses around here -out of the doors and windows -Well done, well done. Wonderful, Wonderful. And I am told they were still dancing in the streets at 4 am in the morning. We had long since gone to bed.
Murray’s grandparents, on how Murray’s win has helped the tight-knit Scottish community recover from a school shooting that devastated the small town nearly 20 years ago:
It’s put Dunblane on the map for all the right reasons. After the dreadful times of 1996 – it couldn’t have come at a better time for Andy to divert attention away from what had happened in Dunblane to what was happening. He just gave them something to focus on. And enjoy his success.
Murray, on bringing a little bit of Wimbledon to Dunblane:
It’s nice because when we were growing up the tennis courts around this area never got used, they were empty all of the time, in some ways for us it was good because there was always tennis courts for us but it seemed like a shame they were empty most of the year so it’s nice that a lot of the times when I do come back to the various tennis courts and centres they have around here it’s great to see the courts busy and a lot more kids playing tennis, I’m happy about that.
Courtesy of Open Court:
Topics: Andy Murray, British Tennis, Cnn, CNN sports, CNN tennis news, Sports, Tennis, Wimbledon
CNN’S ‘OPEN COURT’ SPEAKS WITH @andy_murray IN HIS NEW HOTEL IN DUNBLANE – http://t.co/TqEbm4IXMU @cnnopencourt #AndyMurray #tennis
CNN’S ‘OPEN COURT’ SPEAKS WITH ANDY MURRAY IN HIS NEW HOTEL IN DUNBLANE – http://t.co/XpCi1xqqms #CNN @andy_murray #tennis @cnnopencourt