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Andy Murray and his brother Jamie in doubles action this year.
Andy Murray and his brother Jamie in doubles action this year. Photograph: Rob Carr/Getty Images
Andy Murray and his brother Jamie in doubles action this year. Photograph: Rob Carr/Getty Images

Fleeting nature of tennis greatness makes legacy building tough

This article is more than 4 years old

For many of the leading tennis players of this generation, maintaining their legacy has become a clear priority but the Murray family and Roger Federer are taking different paths

Jamie Murray was in the middle of a meet-and-greet with Glaswegian school children this week when an STV journalist asked him if tennis in his country deserves better. Such questions seem to come up with increasing frequency as he and his brother Andy navigate the final years of their careers with no promising young players waiting in the wings. In Scotland, despite the money their success has generated, the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) provides only £1m of grants from their £64.5m revenue. Murray sighed: “If you think about the Scottish players that have represented us in Davis Cup and have won ties, I would say that they do,” he said. “We’re a country after all, not a county.”

Nostalgia is often the currency of team sports. Football is full of reminders of great goals and legends from years long ago. Arsenal fans still go to sleep thinking of Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry. But in tennis, the impact of greatness is fleeting and even the most transcendent players can quickly lose their influence if they don’t capitalise when at the top.

Just a generation ago, Pete Sampras was considered the greatest player of all time with a seemingly uncatchable 14 time slam titles, yet today he is only mentioned when one of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic or Roger Federer erase another of his records. After a legendary rivalry with Andre Agassi, both men quietly departed from the sport; the last American to win a grand slam title since was Andy Roddick at the 2003 US Open. For many of the leading players of this generation, maintaining their legacy has become a clear priority.

Instead of kicking his feet up after securing his seventh grand slam title in the US Open mixed doubles alongside Bethanie Mattek-Sands, this week Jamie Murray has tried to take his family’s legacy into his own hands. The first edition of the Murray Trophy, an ATP Challenger event in Glasgow with a total prize money pot of only €46,600, is now underway. The 33-year-old has taken a senior role in helping to run the tournament alongside the LTA and Glasgow Life and he fretted over its success beforehand.

Yet the tournament has been a sober reminder of the limits of his power at a time when the LTA have come under immense criticism for their failure to do more. Held at the Scotstoun Tennis Centre, a humble sports club with a few hundred temporary seats on its main indoor court, the stands were empty for most of the early sessions and only 400 or so committed tennis fans braved the live stream on the BBC website at any given time. About 50 people attended as 17-year-old Jack Draper, Britain’s best young hope, and the 19-year-old Scot Aidan McHugh both exited in their first matches. By the round of 32, every British singles entrant had been bundled out of the tournament.

It wasn’t until Wednesday evening that enthusiastic crowds filled the indoor hall, but they came only for one man as Murray took to the court and won his first match with his Australian partner John-Patrick Smith. He will earn no meaningful points or prize money from the endeavour, but with the transformation of the Davis Cup this year, this is probably as good as it gets for Murray and for Scotland. It is unlikely that Murray will compete in a bigger professional event in Scotland for the remainder of his career and it is unlikely that Scotland will be inspired by its two greatest stars at the top level on home soil again.

Andy Murray is not in Scotland, but he has also shown his own concern for nurturing the future. Murray founded his own agency, 77 Sports Management, in 2013, which takes care of British athletes mentored by the 32-year-old, including former junior No 2 Katie Swan, athletes Shannon and Cheriece Hylton, and McHugh. Judy Murray has found her calling in the grassroots of the sport, attempting to help to expand the sport in Scotland but also traveling to the United States, Brazil, China and everywhere in between to bestow other countries with the same wisdom. At the Hamburg Open in July, she laughed as she discussed her globetrotting life, but she was also clear: “I’m a huge disciple for tennis,” she said. “We can’t sit back and we have to work hard to grow the sport. Now.” She knows more than anyone that the chance to capitalise on the unprecedented Open era success of her two sons is fading and it may soon be gone.

Roger Federer sees his legacy in tennis quite differently. This weekend, the Ryder Cup-inspired Laver Cup will launch its third edition in Geneva. The tournament pits Team World against Team Europe and is run by the boutique agency Team8, which Federer co-founded with his manager Tony Godsick. Most of its sponsors – Rolex, Credit Suisse, Mercedes, Barilla, Netjets, Moet and Chandon and Wilson – are his own sponsors. Throughout the past two years, he has tirelessly promoted it, desperate to put down a permanent marker where many legends before him have either failed or not bothered.

The Laver Cup has been a wildly fun success, last year generating an attendance of 93,584 across three days and five sessions in the Chicago Bulls’ United Center. While Federer is famed for his classic style, the irony is that his event is now the embodiment of tennis’s identity crisis, driving endless discussions about whether tennis should recognise itself as entertainment or only focus on pure competition. In the previous two editions, there have been locker room cameras that turned even Kyle Edmund into an entertainer, absurd team celebrations and even laughably contrived tactical conversations.

However, all of it would be nothing without the one attention draw – the sight of Federer’s greatest rivals, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, teaming up with him in doubles and advising each other in singles. In the pre-event media appearances this year, it was probably no coincidence that Federer and Nadal stood beside each other for almost every photo opportunity.

Like Murray, Federer’s agency also manages other players, but rather than mentoring his countrymen and women, Team8 represents the stars. Juan Martín del Potro, Coco Gauff and Alexander Zverev are all signed up, which means that Federer’s own agency is in charge of some of his rivals.

The Swiss frequently asserts that he is only another player and plays no role in their careers, but the writing was on the wall during Coco Gauff’s rousing summer, when her transcendent success sparked conversations about the age restrictions placed on young female players. The 38-year-old admitted that he “told the WTA they should loosen up the rules.” After all, this is his legacy and he is determined to shape it. The question, as with most conversations about the future of the sport, is how his legacy will endure when he retires.

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