Andy Murray tells Wimbledon how they could’ve improved ‘strange’ poster

Andy Murray has broken his silence after being snubbed from one of Wimbledon’s promotional posters. The Brit’s brother and uncle both spoke out when the two-time champion wasn’t included in an illustration showing past, present and future champions. Murray himself said that he saw a different issue with the poster but still “didn’t really care”.

Wimbledon sparked backlash last week after releasing the latest in a series of promotional illustrations for this year’s Championships. The painting showed Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner in the foreground with the likes of the Big Three, Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, and the Williams sisters behind them.

But many voiced their disappointment that Murray wasn’t included given that he has won the title twice and was the first home champion in 77 years. However, the man himself wasn’t as bothered as his uncle Niall Erskine, who told Wimbledon: “You should be ashamed of yourselves.”

Speaking at the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic where he lost an exhibition match to Holger Rune, Murray joked: “It was a disaster, wasn’t it?” After laughing it off, the former world No 1 then went on to raise a separate concern with the poster but wasn’t fussed about his lack of inclusion.

“I mean, I don’t think the problem with the poster was me not being on it,” he continued. “You’ve seen it, I don’t need to elaborate any more on it. It’s pretty obvious if you’ve seen the poster. For me it was, me not being on it is certainly not a problem.”

With Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, Serena and Venus Williams, and a pair believed to be Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina all in the background of the photo, Murray agreed that it was odd to see that the first four of five groups on the poster were men. “Yes. I think that was what was slightly strange,” he added.

“I guess the players on the poster have obviously had incredible careers and have been unbelievably successful at Wimbledon but elsewhere some of the greatest players of all time. For me, Alcaraz and Sinner are unbelievable players but it seems strange that they were all behind them.”

“I mean he was part of the big four for 10 years, maybe more,” the doubles pro said at Queen’s last week. “Obviously, he was No 1 in the world and then he smashed up his hip, and since then it’s been a bit tough going for him. But he won the singles twice in an incredible era of tennis and made another final.

“I thought it was a bit of a slight, especially with everything that he brought to the tournament for so long. You know, the whole country like falling behind his kind of journey to try to become the champion, but there you go.”

The All England Club previously confirmed that the poster was part of a series being released in the lead-up to The Championships. The illustrator – Grant Grunhaupt – previously told Jamie Murray: “Worry not Jamie, there are more paintings on the way.”