Andy Murray grew up with a mother that introduced him to the sport, and he’d like to see more Female Coaches in the sport.

Murray is a self-declared feminist who has called for more equality in tennis for pretty much his entire career. The Brit argued for many things and was one of the few tennis players to actually have a Female coach while competing on the ATP Tour.

Most of the Coaches in the sport are men, but there are plenty of good capable women who know tennis as well as anybody. Murray knows that very well from having a mother that essentially introduced him to the sport.

Me and my brother were very fortunate growing up that our mother was, is still, a tennis coach. We grew up with our mom coaching us and helping us. And she’s still, you know, no all the time, but we will still chat to and speak to her about our games and our careers.

Murray and his former female coach Amalie Mauresmo didn’t last as a pairing, but they still had good results together. It was an important step as one of the biggest players in the world, to go against the norm and hire a female coach. Years later, the Brit still thinks it’s very important.

I think it [the initiative to increase the number of female coaches] is really important. It [the lack of female coaches] is something that I’ve found surprising across both tours, but particularly on the women’s tour. Like how few female coaches there are.

I think it’s about time that the WTA had an initiative to try and help with this. Hopefully, those numbers increase because it’s a very small amount. Certainly across the men’s tours. And that’s something that needs to change.

It’s a very personal thing to him, having had a mother as his coach. Judy Murray has been at the forefront of many initiatives, and she shares Murray’s passion for tennis and getting new people into tennis. Obviously, having more female coaches is another thing that she’d like to see improved.

She’s someone that I’ve spoken to about this and she’s been unbelievably passionate about getting girls into tennis, but also the female coaching side of things and trying to get more female coaches involved in the sport.