Andy Murray admitted he never uses the snooker table his wife bought for him to congratulate him on his tennis accomplishments. It’s been over a year since the Scotsman retired from the sport, with his last game coming at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the doubles event alongside Dan Evans.
Since ending his career on the court, the 38-year-old has sunk his teeth into golf but revealed during an appearance on Stephen Hendry’s Cue Tips YouTube channel that he was an avid player of snooker while still a tennis player. Specifically, it was during the greatest year of his career in 2016 that Murray regularly had a cue in his hand.
The culmination of Murray’s hard work and dedication paid off that year as he won Wimbledon, Olympic gold for the second time and ended his season as the ATP Tour Finals winner to clinch his status as the year-end No. 1 player in the world.
He also added six ATP Tour tournament victories to his name that year, with three of them being Masters 1000 events. It was amid all his success on the court that Murray was regularly playing snooker, with his wife Kim Sears going as far to buy him a table for the house.
Speaking to one of snooker’s all-time greats in Hendry, he told his compatriot: “I have a snooker table at home” before admitting the table has been gathering dust. “It doesn’t get any use,” Murray said when asked how much time he spends on it. “I went through a period where I was playing a lot of snooker,” he added.
“I played a lot in 2016 and I finished number one in the world that year and I came home from the last match of the year and my wife bought me a snooker table to say well done.” Murray explained that his busy home life, which consists of looking after his four children, makes it difficult for him to continue his snooker hobby.
had a pool table in the house at that stage so she removed the pool table. We still have it in the house but it doesn’t get used anymore. I can’t go down there and I don’t want the kids to mess it up.” While he hasn’t been able to continue playing snooker, it’s quite the contrast to Murray’s relationship with golf.
Having already competed in several tournaments this year, his growing participation in the game led to rumours that he’d attempt qualification for The Open Championship next year which Murray quickly poured cold water on. “I don’t have ambitions of playing in The Open,” he said earlier this year.
“I want to try and play in the regional qualifying at some stage. A couple of my friends have done it. It would just be a fun thing to do if you got to the level where you’re able to do that. I would do it, but I certainly don’t think I would have any chance of qualifying for The Open.
“I’m fully aware of how good the players that play in those events are and how good the pros are in comparison to amateurs. Even guys that play off two or three are miles off what these guys on the Tour are doing.”
