Inside the making of Wimbledon’s emotional Andy Murray tribute: ‘Our first call was to Sue Barker’

How do you bid farewell to a legend? As Wimbledon approached and Andy Murray’s career neared the end, those conversations started to swirl around the All England Club. The two-time champion and first British winner of the men’s singles title in 77 years deserved a fitting send-off and celebration of his achievements, should the tournament be his last. With uncertainty surrounding Murray’s fitness and future, Wimbledon tentatively began work on how to commemorate the moment no one at the Championships wanted to arrive.

But how? “We didn’t want it to be too pre-planned and, you know, feel too false. It had to be genuine and organic,” says Paul Davies, Wimbledon’s head of broadcast and production. Ruled out of the singles, Murray’s doubles match with his brother Jamie turned out to be his last ever match at Wimbledon, after Emma Raducanu pulled out of their mixed-doubles match on Saturday. By then, though, Murray had received an emotional tribute on Centre Court and an acknowledgement of his 20-year Wimbledon career. For those in charge of the ceremony, the months of prepration had paid off.

Wimbledon were required to be flexible. For much of the season, uncertainty over how long Murray had left at the top of the sport dominated talk around his matches. Murray admitted he would likely not play beyond the summer but an ankle injury suffered at the Miami Open in March cast doubt over his Wimbledon. While he recovered in time for the grass-court season, a back injury picked up at Queen’s and an operation to remove a spinal cyst threatened his chance to appear at the event that has defined his career.

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The tournament had starting preparing for the possibility of one of Britain’s greatest ever athletes playing his final Wimbledon at the start of the year, while taking careful considerations to ensure Murray got what he wanted. “It was obviously a very important moment in terms of everything that Andy has done for tennis, for the Championships, for himself,” says Davies. “It’s critical that whatever we did, we got absolutely right. We were never going to enforce anything or plan for anything that he was not fully supportive of.”

The difficult part came as Murray, by nature, was not going to contemplate the end. While he gave the green light to a ceremony, he would not engage in what it would look like. “He’s still got that hunger to compete and he’s not even considering losing a tennis match,” Davies says. But Davies and his team knew that if Murray made it to Wimbledon and played a match, a ceremony would almost certainly involve an on-court interview, to allow him to express his emotions. There was only one person Wimbledon wanted to conduct it, and that was Sue Barker.

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Even though Barker had retired from the BBC in 2022, she had served as face of Wimbledon for 30 years and had interviewed Murray after his biggest moments on Centre Court, including the Wimbledon final defeat to Roger Federer in 2012 and the victory over Novak Djokovic in 2013. It would only be right if she was there at the end, too. “Sue was pretty much the first call,” Davies. “She said she would be absolutely honoured. It took her about five seconds to say yes.”

Next on the list was producing an item to bring the memories alive and capture, in a few minutes, Murray’s fight, determination and the qualities he gave to Wimbledon. A tribute video would demand the right images and shots from Murray’s greatest achievements and most painful defeats, but also a stirring voiceover and moving soundtrack. Andrew Cotter, the BBC commentator, not only lent his poetic Scottish accent to the piece but wrote the moving tribute himself. As for the music, after trialling up to 20 different options, a cover of Radiohead’s Creep was selected: “You’re so very special” was a clever edit, rather than the original expletive.

With the words written and script set, it quickly became clear that certain lines would take on extra weight if read by legends of the sport. Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic were Murray’s greatest rivals during his peak and a tribute video would not be complete without them, while Venus and Serena Williams also defined an era during his career and their could bring significant contributions. Venus, for example, was given the line, “and did you fight for others”, used for the 2017 clip in which Murray corrected a journalist who overlooked the Williams sisters when saying Sam Querrey was the first US player to reach a major semi-final since 2009.

The team had set to work from March contacting the relevant people and arranging times to record their pieces to camera, shot as if addressing Murray themselves. Federer filmed his at the All England Club while on a visit to London but the others were less straight-forward. Venus was filmed in New York using a live link. A crew was sent to Nadal’s academy in Majorca after the Spaniard pulled out of Wimbledon. Djokovic’s piece was the final one to be filmed due to doubts over his own fitness ahead of the Championships, but it was captured after he arrived on site and dropped into place at the last moment.

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There was gratitude from the past champions for getting the opportunity to be part of the ceremony. “When Federer walked out the door he said, ‘Thank you for allowing me to do that’. They all felt privileged to be part of it,” says Davies. While there was great excitement at the prospect of Federer returning to Centre Court, the eight-time champion left the grounds for a pre-planned appointment before the farewell, but visited the locker rooms to speak with Murray pre-match. He would still play a role in the ceremony.

A “forensic” editing process was led by producer Paul Yoshida and took place over a period of three weeks. When it came to final preparations, the All England Club were so worried that the video would leaked that they did not rehearse playing the finished product on the screens on Centre Court, while the audio was played in reverse to avoid giving away any spoilers. Murray’s family, who were involved in discussions over the ceremony throughout, were not shown any versions of the tribute video in order for it to be a surprise on the day.

The tournament, though, were prepared to change their plans if they had to. From the start, Wimbledon took the position of being guided by what Murray wanted. Tournament director Jamie Baker, who has known Murray since they were children, was in communication with the family and the decision was reached that if Andy and Jamie were to lose in the men’s doubles, a ceremony on Centre Court would follow. But Wimbledon were also prepared to change their plans at the final second. Everyone remembers another “farewell” video played to Murray at the Australian Open in 2019, which came before he said he was retiring.

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To be sure this time, Wimbledon framed their tributes as a celebration of Murray’s 20 years at the tournament, to tell the stories of his achievements and allow the two-time champion to say thanks to those who had been with him along the way. Certain pieces also fell into place. While Murray desperately wanted to play singes, doubles with Jamie allowed for the emotional moment of the two brothers playing together. A night without any games at Euro 2024 allowed the BBC to show the match in a primetime slot, before switching to coverage of the General Election at 10pm. There would be an appropriate audience. With Murray’s approval, it was time to execute the plan.

Still, certain details had to be improvised. Wimbledon did not know what players would still be on site to form guard of honour but managed to acquire appearances from seven-time champion Djokovic, women’s world No 1 Iga Swiatek, Great Britain team-mates Jack Draper, Cameron Norrie and Dan Evans, as well as Tim Henman and legendary figures such as Martina Navratilova and John McEnroe. Then, to Murray’s surprise and the delight of Centre Court, presenter Rishi Persad handed over the ceremonies to the returning Barker, stepping out onto Wimbledon for the first time in three years.

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The interview discussed Murray’s lows, highs and included three separate references to vomit, which may not have been in the plan. But it was the intention for Murray to be able to speak freely, revealing the little stories and anecdotes that played a part in his journey. “Clearly he was emotional, but he didn’t break down or anything and I think that was a measure of the man,” says Davies.  “To go back to his brother and to hug him in the way that he did, I thought it was just beautiful. It was just a demonstration of the relationship and everything they had been through, that he articulated to the crowd, as well as the sacrifices of the parents.”

The final goodbye brought further shots that may define Murray’s farewell: the image of Murray disappearing into the clubhouse and then as he made his way to the members balcony. That was unplanned, but as a crowd gathered underneath the bridge, a sight that is usually reserved for the winners of the singles titles summed up Murray’s relationship with the Wimbledon crowd and underlined his status as the people’s champion.  It was the dream shot for Davies and his team to finish with. “We were delighted,” he says. “We wanted it to be genuine and organic, and I think that’s what we all got.”