For most of the world, Andy Murray is a symbol of resilience—of titles earned the hard way, of comebacks no one thought possible, of a career defined by grit rather than glamour. But in a rare moment of vulnerability, the former world No. 1 has spoken about a different kind of loss—one that never appeared on a scoreboard.
It was a decision that paid off as he went on to make millions after becoming one of the world’s best tennis players.
But now Sir Andy Murray has revealed he regrets leaving school with no qualifications, and said he would never allow his children to do the same.
ADVERTISEMENT
The double Wimbledon champion abandoned his studies to pursue his dream of being a professional tennis player.
Murray, 38, left high school in his hometown of Dunblane at the age of 15 to train at a tennis academy in Spain. He said he did school work in between practice sessions for a year after moving abroad, but did not gain any formal qualifications.
The father-of-four is encouraging his children to play sport, but said he wants them to have something to fall back on because the chances of making it as a professional are so slim.
said: ‘I moved over to Spain when I was 15 to train in Barcelona. I studied there for like a year but I got no qualifications. Things worked out fine for me but I regret that. I would not give that advice to my own children.
‘If they were in that situation I would be like “Look, keep doing your sport but you have to keep up with your school work”.
‘People hear about the success stories and think “I should send my kid there”, but, at the academy I was at there were like 300 kids and only two or three of them became professional players. I wish I had spent more time focusing on my education.’
Murray also recently told how his lack of education hindered him when he was asked to represent the interests of his fellow professionals on the ATP Tour’s Player Council.
He said: ‘I hated it.
You would be sitting in meetings the day before a tournament for three or four hours and it didn’t feel like much was getting done.
ADVERTISEMENT
‘As tennis players we obviously understand our sport but we’re not intelligent people, most of us, or well educated either.
‘So you would get like ten of us in a room talking about stuff that we don’t really know that much about, like from a business perspective.
