All England Club to recognise retired double champion
Only Fred Perry has full-length statue in the grounds
Sir Andy Murray will enjoy a permanent legacy at Wimbledon after the All England Club announced it would be unveiling a statue in his honour at the 2027 championships. Debbie Jevans, the chair of the AELTC, said the club had been working with Murray and his team and would reveal the sculpture at the championship’s 150th anniversary.
Murray, who retired last year and won the men’s singles title in 2013 and 2016, will have a hand in the design process and it would be understandable he wanted to pay close scrutiny to the project. The last time a statue was made in his honour, at a tournament in Shanghai in 2011, he was photographed next to a terracotta warrior that many claimed looked more like one of America’s founding fathers or José Mourinho.
Other sports stars have also been immortalised in statue form with decidedly mixed results. A bronze bust of Cristiano Ronaldo’s head at Madeira airport led to widespread criticism, while the Arthur Ashe memorial in Virginia also attracted derision when it was unveiled.
