SPORTING creativity is the key component being encouraged in the new #TEAMUP campaign that will identify Andy Murray’s doubles partner in what will otherwise be clan warfare at The Hydro next month.
Launched yesterday by the two-time Wimbledon men’s singles champion’s mother Judy and backed by sponsors SSE, #TEAMUP will be part of Andy Murray Live, the now annual tennis exhibition which will this year see Roger Federer, the man who has made history in replacing him as Wimbledon champion, make his first ever appearance in Scotland.
Its aim is to be as accessible as possible to tennis fans encouraging them to take part whether they have the right equipment or not and, indeed, the way the family matriarch described it, using a tennis racquet might be a bit too orthodox to have a chance of winning.
“It’s a keepie uppie competition which basically you can do with a tennis ball and a racquet or you can do with something else,” said Judy who typically used the launch as an opportunity to coach youngsters at Perth Tennis Club.
“If somebody wanted to be part of the competition and they didn’t have a tennis racquet you could do biscuit tin lid and ping pong ball for example. It’s basically a 10 second challenge encouraging people to be as creative as they can be with a tennisy activity or skill building tennis activity and to upload it onto social media.
“Whoever comes up with the most creative, fun way of doing keepie uppie within a 10 second clip – it’s that whole snap thing, things being very quick, the way people share nowadays – will have the chance to come to AM Live and actually play a doubles with Jamie and Andy and me on the showcourt.
So it’s a way of encouraging more people to get involved, to have a chance to come along to see it, but it’s a real fun thing and hopefully will get more people engaged with tennis through it. It’s a very contemporary way of running a competition.”
Murray remains profoundly aware of the need to maintain awareness in the public consciousness by staging high class tennis in front of Scottish audiences in order at a time when, logistically, it is all but impossible for the Murray brothers to play in a full blown tournament in their homeland.
“One of the biggest challenges for us up here is that we don’t have a venue up here that would cope with a major tennis event,” she said.
The phrase ‘if you can see it you can be it’ having become something of a mantra for Judy, she believes it is vital that the opportunity provided by the drawing power of her champion sons has to be capitalised upon.
“It is important to share and put world class tennis in front of Scottish people because we do not have any other major events, unless we have Davis Cup ties,” she pointed out.
“We were fortunate with the Davis Cup because Great Britain had several home ties in a row, which was almost unheard of – maybe six or seven and several came to Glasgow which was fantastic. It let everyone see the appetite for it, because the atmosphere in the Emirates was something else.”
She recounts it as something of a surreal experience from the perspective of someone who grew up in a part of the world where tennis only registered on the wider consciousness for a fortnight every year when Wimbledon was being televised, yet who has played a major part in her coaching career, in transforming its status. “As a Scottish tennis person over so many years, I sat there and thought; ‘it’s a semi-final of the Davis Cup in the east end of Glasgow, Scottish player and Scottish captain, crowds going mad,’ and a year later we had (Andy Murray Live) because you realise you have to bring the excitement to your own people. It was a fantastic thing.”
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