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Washington tournament joins Andy Murray’s donation

Despite the fact that we talk less and less about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the impact continues to be felt in the Ukrainian country. Last March, Andy Murray made public his decision to donate all his 2022 prize money to help the children of Ukraine. The Briton, who has just signed a good tour on grass in which he has overcome an injury, now faces the North American tour. Murray will debut at the ATP 500 de Washington next Monday, August 1 against the Swedish tennis player Mikael Ymer and with an extra motivation: the organization of the tournament will match the amount to contribute to the donation.

Inspired by Murray

Mark Ein, executive director of the Citi Open, has been in charge of communicating this decision to the media in the days leading up to the tournament: “All of us who are part of the sport were inspired when Andy Murray said that he would donate everything he wins in tournaments to UNICEF to help Ukrainian children. He made me think. We’ll match the prize money Andy gets here and donate it. We will create a platform that fans can participate in called ‘Match Ukraine‘, there they will be able to accompany Andy on his way throughout the year”.

“It’s brilliant,” said Murray. “It shows that when players and tournaments work together, good things can happen. I hope to have a good week and that the fans get involved too, I hope to raise a lot of money.”

The role of the athlete in controversial issues

“Everyone is different. I don’t think that all athletes necessarily have to have the same role or speak in public about everything. There are certain themes that have been important to me throughout my career. I have felt, personally, that I wanted to defend women. That started when I worked with Amelie Mauresmo. Before, I only thought about my own career and focused on my tennis”, explained Andy.

“When I started working with Amelie, I saw how she was treated. So, I started asking my mother questions about it. She has been a tennis coach in a male dominated world for her entire life. I asked her about some of the challenges she has had to face. I started getting questions from the media about it, something that hadn’t happened in the past with the other coaches. So, I started to see that maybe there was a problem there and that I needed to talk about it. Since then, I have always felt that the fact that women and men compete together in the most important events is unique in the world.

The comeback after injury

“I think one of the hardest things when you’re injured for a while is measuring your limits when you train because you want to prepare your body for matches, but you don’t want to get injured. It is very normal for an athlete, when he is fit, to feel pain and discomfort in the body. When you haven’t played for a while, those discomforts play with your mind because you don’t know if it’s just a pain or if you’re injured again.

The psychological factor is important in your return, trusting your body again, remembering what it feels like to be a professional athlete. That was difficult for me. The rest is time and patience. You can’t pretend to play at the level you were at, but your head remembers it. You start from a low level. You need time and patience to rebuild everything. It’s not easy, but you learn a lot, that’s for sure”.

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