Andy Murray makes plea to tennis chiefs after highlighting 'really surprising' WTA issue
Andy Murray has called on the WTA to make changes after noticing an issue in tennis.
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Andy Murray has pleaded with the WTA to make changes to help increase the number of female coaches in tennis, having noticed a big disparity. Following his Wimbledon exit, the Brit has insisted that “it’s about time” for change, having been one of the few players on the men’s tour to have such a high influence from female coaches throughout his career.
He worked with his mother, Judy Murray, as a youngster coming into the sport and continues to call upon the coach for support and advice throughout his career. While the three-time Grand Slam champion also was coached by Amelie Mauresmo between 2014 and 2016.
Murray has always been a vocal supporter of the women's game and the need for equality in tennis, and has now called for more work to be done to attract female coaches to tennis. Of the 128 women in the singles bracket at Wimbledon, just six work with a female coach. All of the coaches for men were men.
The WTA created a Coach Inclusion Programme last year, as 10 applicants were able to shadow veteran coaches. The programme is being expanded in 2024, something that Murray believes is positive but issued a warning that the work cannot stop there.
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“I think it [the initiative to increase the number of female coaches] is really important,” Murray said on the Citi Open’s Instagram. “It [the lack of female coaches] is something that I've found surprising across both tours, but particularly on the women's tour. Like how few female coaches there are.
“I think it's about time that the WTA had an initiative to try and help with this. Hopefully, those numbers increase because it's a very small amount. Certainly across the men's tours. And that's something that needs to change.
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.@andy_murray speaks about an importance of female coaches on tour ❤️ @JudyMurray pic.twitter.com/vh65t0KLLA
— Andy Murray Fan Club (@MagicMurrayFans) July 28, 2023
“Me and my brother were very fortunate growing up that our mother was, is still, a tennis coach. We grew up with our mom coaching us and helping us. And she's still, you know, not all the time, but we will still chat to and speak to her about our games and our careers.
“She's someone that I've spoken to about this and she's been unbelievably passionate about getting girls into tennis, but also the female coaching side of things and trying to get more female coaches involved in the sport.”
The WTA is continuing work to try and improve the number of female coaches in its Player Zone database, but currently just 15 of the 186 active coaches are women - a number that Murray believes is drastically too low and significant efforts should be made to improve it.