Andy Murray has given his verdict on the state of British women’s tennis after advancing to the semi-final of the Lexus Surbiton Trophy. Emma Raducanu will be dethroned as the British No 1 next week while Britain still has no women in the world’s top 100. And Murray sent the current crop of young stars a message following their own success in Surbiton.
Murray booked his spot in the last four at the Surbiton Challenger with a three-set comeback win over fifth seed Jason Kubler on Friday. The world No 43 is the only British man left at the tournament after the likes of Dan Evans and Ryan Peniston crashed out before the quarter-final.
But Britain has been well represented in the ITF women’s event running concurrently, with Katie Boulter, Katie Swan and Lily Miyazaki all through to the semi-final. It means Raducanu will no longer be the British No 1 as the 20-year-old continues to recover from surgery.
There has been some criticism of British tennis in recent weeks, as the country was left with zero women in the top 100 after Raducanu dropped out. But Murray is backing the women in Surbiton to fight their way into the elite group in the rankings after an impressive showing so far.
“They have had a very good week and hopefully they can continue and push their ranking up because all of them are capable of being top 100 players. They just need to be out on the tour consistently,” he said after his 3-6 6-3 6-4 win.
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A three-time Grand Slam champion, Murray also slammed the idea that British tennis wasn’t successful. He continued: “I don’t really know what is considered success for a Grand Slam nation. Is top 100 players what matters? Is it Grand Slam champions? I don’t know what it is that people want.”
The former world No 1 thought the goal posts had changed after Raducanu’s historic victory at the 2021 US Open. “Of course I would like to see more British players competing at the top of the game because I care about it and I want them to do well,” he added.
And Boulter also thought that the British women were proving themselves in Surbiton as she said: “It [shows] that the talent is there. Emma’s story is an absolute fairy tale. We all believe it and hope that’s going to be us.
“But the reality is that week in week out, it’s not a sprint it’s a marathon. You have to keep reminding yourself of that, keep your head down and keep working.”