Andy Murray shaken by ‘heartbreaking’ Nottingham attacks

Andy Murray said he did not know whether play would go ahead at the Rothesay Nottingham Open after the “heartbreaking” incident in the city centre overnight.

Three people were killed and another three were in hospital after an attack in the early hours of Tuesday morning, with much of the local area cordoned off.

Play did go ahead as planned and Murray, fresh from his title success at Surbiton last week, got his campaign in the Challenger event off to a winning start with a routine 6-3 6-4 victory over Belgian minnow Joris De Loore.

But Murray, who ate out in Nottingham city centre not far from where the attacks happened, said the incident was “way more important than tennis”.

Murray has first-hand experience of the horror of a mass attack. He and his brother Jamie were at Dunblane Primary School on 13 March 1996 when Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 pupils and a teacher.

He told media in Nottingham: “It was obviously shocking when I woke up this morning and when I was going down to breakfast a few messages on our team chat came up. We are staying in the city centre and had been out for dinner last night and walking around those areas. You never expect something like that to happen, it was really shocking.

“I didn’t know if it was going to affect anything here or not because the streets were closed this morning. Really shocking and obviously heartbreaking for the victims and the people involved so hopefully everyone is safe now.

“We were talking about it this morning, saying that we didn’t know if the tournament was going to be suspended for the day because there are way more important things than a tennis event and we didn’t know first thing what was going on because it happened in the middle of the night.

“It is a bit unsettling, it seems like everything is under control now but it was shocking news to wake up to.”

Tournament organisers confirmed there will be a minute’s silence in memory of the three victims ahead of play on Wednesday morning.

On court, everything is going well for Murray, who won his sixth match in nine days and is feeling in good physical shape. His victory at Surbiton, a second-tier tournament, came on the same day as Murray’s one-time nememsis Novak Djokovic won a record-breaking 23rd grand slam.

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Murray obviously feels some regret at injury denying him the chance to compete when he was at the peak of his career but revealed a text message from his wife Kim put things into perspective.

“Obviously I would love to be competing for grand slams and to be in that position, I am also aware that what they have done is incredible and what he is doing at his age is brilliant,” he said. “We have completely different journeys and what happened with my hip when I was in the peak of my career was really unfortunate.

“But I got a message from my wife when I was driving up here saying she had seen Novak on the news that he won in Paris and said she was so proud that I was still grinding it out in Challengers and still working as hard as I ever have done and that means a lot to me.

“When I was in my mid-20s I would always get asked, ‘When are you going to win things, all these guys around you are always winning’, and I always wanted what they had. Once I started to accept that I shouldn’t be comparing myself against other people and I should just focus on my own journey and working as hard as I can to achieve the goals I want to, that’s all you can do and that’s what I’m doing.

“Whether I win another grand slam or winning Challengers is the peak for me now, I am OK with that because I am doing what I love to do. I was happy for Novak on Sunday and what he has achieved is incredible. When I look back, the fact I was winning my slams and Olympics against those players is brilliant and I’ll be very proud of that.”