Katie Boulter has insisted Andy Murray’s “legacy lives on” at the US Open after Emma Raducanu dismissed the double Wimbledon champion as “old news.
And fellow British No.1 Jack Draper said he will miss the smell of the Scot’s “rancid, stinking shoes” at the first Grand Slam since his retirement.
Raducanu’s wrist injury denied Murray a final Wimbledon farewell in the mixed doubles. And the 2021 champion caused more controversy here by claiming that “unforgiving” tennis “just moves on” without the knight of the realm. “It doesn’t feel different at all,” she said coldly.
It is not a sentiment shared by the top two British players in New York – and both Boulter and Draper insisted they had been inspired to play tennis by Murray in warm tributes.
The Scot won the US Open junior title here in 2004 and his first Grand Slam title in 2012.
And Boulter said: “His legacy lives on. I walk past his pictures here every day. What an incredible player.
“I think everything that he’s done for us is incredible. I think it put British tennis on another level, and inspired so many kids, myself included. I think what he’s done for this game is above and beyond.
I have been at the National Training Centre since I was 13 years old. I was obviously too scared to go up to him and speak to him but I think just even being in the same atmosphere as him, you feel his presence, you feel he’s in there. You see what he’s doing, you see how he’s working. I think that showed me a lot about how to work
“I’m sure he’s going to be back here in some way possible, very, very soon, and I don’t doubt that.”
Draper said: “I do miss his presence a lot. It seems a bit weird not having Andy there with his rancid, stinking shoes lying next to me in the locker room. On the tour, all the GB players have their lockers next to each other. And Andy’s shoes would always be drying out next to me with his wedding ring on it.
“He’s mad about getting everything perfect. But the one thing that players would say about Andy is very messy, which is always very funny. You’d have his shoes there, his wet grips there, his stuff here, and I’m trying to move it away: ‘Give me, give me some space to sit down.
But the world No.25, who faces a tricky first round against Chinese world No.41 Zhizhen Zhang on Tuesday, added: “I do obviously feel a responsibility to really play good tennis and be the British No.1. So, I miss Andy, but things have to come to an end, and hopefully I can keep on going from here and the other players as well. I think Andy is happy to leave a massive legacy and move on.”
Raducanu, who shocked the tennis world by winning the US Open as a qualifier, claimed she will always do things “a little bit differently” after deciding to skip the Olympics on clay to prepare for the US hardcourt season. The world No.71, who faces Sofia Kenin in the first round, has only played one event in Washington since Wimbledon.
Both Draper and Boulter represented GB in Paris where Murray played his last event in the doubles with Dan Evans.
World No.33 Boulter, who has also suffered injury problems during her career, said: “It was a choice that I made to take that risk, basically, on whether my performance is going to be good enough here or my body’s gonna hold up. But for me, playing the Olympics outweighed everything and I didn’t care what the circumstances were going to be.
I was going to play it. And I think a lot of players chose the same thing. The Olympics were amazing. I don’t have words for it. I can’t describe to you the feeling that we all had when we were out there. It was scary fun. It’s something that I’m gonna always remember.”
Boulter faces Belarusian world No. 80 Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the first round.
