Andy Murray: Retirement, Tennis Grunts & Finally Feeling Pride

0:00So these were yours, you had these at home? these guys I don't like your tone you said these are mine so I didn't actually have them up they were boxed well I would have it in my office I've got an office at home you're doing well aren't you you're doing very well I would take that as a compliment if there wasn't there's an edge of surprise you're doing very what I mean is It's better than you thought, isn't it? No, I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't say that. Okay. But, you know, Rangaby is doing stuff that doesn't involve me, isn't it? Yeah. So, you know, I can't take full credit. The second floor is not anything to do with me, is it?

0:47Nothing to do with it. I've not even been there. Really? Well, there's only like one toilet. And once I... Look, the truth is we were writing up there once, Avoidance, I know you watched it, didn't you? No. No, BBC sitcom. Anyway, we were writing it on the second floor and then I went to have a wee and I forgot to lock the toilet. Somebody walked in on me. Somebody from another production company. So now I can't, I'm too scared to go back up to that floor. And what were you doing on the toilet? I was having a sit down wee. I do that as well. Do you? I only wee sitting down. Oh my God, yes man.

1:18Only wee sitting down. I thought you were gonna rip it out of me for that. No, no, yeah. It's just more comfortable, right? Yeah, and that's one of my biggest pet peeves is piss on the toilet seat. which you know see everywhere out in public yeah you do yeah it's horrible and i just think i'd like to guarantee that doesn't happen so i sit down yeah well though lisa did describe it as an ick well yeah my wife finds it weird as well yeah yeah she does find it a bit strange but you don't do you weigh in front of her yeah do you yeah i have no issues with that you wouldn't poo yeah i'm fine with that as well yeah but i have no issue with that that's all what Are you being serious right now?

2:01Yeah, so I would be, yeah, if I'm brushing my teeth, she would. While you're brushing your teeth? Yeah. Yeah. Are you being serious? Dead serious, yeah. Is that, have you? Absolutely, I mean, that couldn't be further from my relationship. Yeah. You've only had sex. No. I don't think I've, no, I don't think I could do that. I respect it though, actually. Yeah. I respect it, it shows a level of closeness that. I don't have in my life. Yeah, I don't know. I just, I don't care at all. Yeah. Okay. All right. I really do want to unpack this more. Okay. But it's so early on in our chat that I'm nervous that people are going to think it's sort of, you know, a bit scatological.

2:45But how, like, do you, were you openly fart in front of your wife? Would I openly fart, did you say? Yeah, I mean. Well done for moving it on. Pardon? Well done moving it on. Really great job of that. I've seen this. We can put this later on in the episode, all right? But I'm just intrigued. But how do you do it? Do you like, are you sort of, oops, sorry, or will you cock a leg? I guess is what I'm asking. Like how? I want it. Yeah, I'm fine with it being loud or I don't mind if she's hearing that. Right. Would you be performative with it though? No, I've never cocked my leg before doing it. Right.

3:22But I could try. Have you ever gone, check this out? Are they like just slightly let over? No. No, I wouldn't do that. No, sorry. Yeah. Yeah. No, I wouldn't either. Do you want to do the intro? Yeah, sure. Hi, I'm Andy Murray, former world number one tennis player, and I'm delighted to be here on the Romesh Ranganathan podcast. Is that what it's called? The Romesh Ranganathan show? Yeah. We'll keep that one. Let's go.

4:00Oh, shut up, Romesh. By the way, these intros have been factually incorrect on a number of occasions, so feel free to... I'm surprised that you need one of... Do you always have an autocue up there? Do people know that you've got an autocue up there? Well, they... Can I tell you the honest truth? I wanted to have just cards, right? And they said aesthetically it doesn't work. Yeah. So now I'm having to suffer the indignity of every time a guest... Don't look ahead. That's for a game lettering. You just said you didn't have cards and then I saw that on there.

4:38That's for a specific thing in a bit. But what I mean is aesthetically cards don't work. So now every time somebody sits down, they go, oh, my God, you've got an autocue. But the whole conversation will not be autocue. There wasn't a thing that asked him about shitting. That was just from the heart. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What were you going to say? It's because otherwise you end up, it's never great because then you're just like looking down. Sure, no, I get that. So this is great. Yeah, it's really good. Yeah. It's really good, yeah. I just... I didn't like the criticism. All right.

5:12Why don't you do it with not looking at it then? Yeah.

5:20My guest today is a former world number one tennis player.

5:28I can't do it. My guest today is a former world number one tennis player. In 2013, he made history as the first British man since Fred Perry to win Wimbledon in 77 years. He's won 14 Masters, 1 ,000 trophies, three Grand Slam championships, and two Olympic gold medals. In 2017, he was knighted for his outstanding contributions to tennis and charity. He retired from the sport in 2024. In between school runs with his four kids, walking the dog and running a five-star hotel in Scotland with wife Kim. He is currently in training to be the country's next great golfer. Sir Andy Murray, everybody. Yes.

5:58What did you think of that intro? It was really good. Yeah. It was a bit quick, but felt quick. Okay. So that was a deliberate decision. I thought because there's so much stuff in there, by ramping it up, it makes it feel like, holy shit, this guy's done so much. Do you know what I mean? Well, you know your stuff, don't you? I'm sure that was the right way to do it oh right okay feels like sarcasm it's really good to have you on here thank you so much for coming thanks for having me I consider us friends I know you don't yeah friends is a stretch I mean we know each other don't we and we've had some nice moments together but friends a bit of a stretch probably no I think that's fair and as friends at a stretch we have got you a gift really yes Thank you.

6:46It's under that jacket there. It is, yeah. It's just a genuine gift. It's a genuine gift. This for you to take, although it's, I don't know if you'll want it, but it's nice, but it's just quite, I don't know what your logistic situation is going out of here, but because you'll have to carry it. Train. Ben, could you train? Oh, this would be great for the train. All right. Oh. Do you know you sounded like Henry's cat? Do you remember Henry's cat? Oh. Henry's cat was disappointed. Do you want to give a bit of... Sir Andy Murray wasn't sure about the gift. How? Do you want to give a bit of context?

7:22Sure. Obviously, you've retired from tennis. You're somebody that likes to keep yourself occupied, whether it be playing golf or sitting down for a piss. And so we thought we could provide you with potentially a new hobby. Okay. And that's where this gift comes from. Sorry. So it's... it's oh wow look at that one it's look at that it's it can i can i move this a little bit yeah yeah sure yeah i mean that is very kind of you of course man look at that you know what i used to play at one of my friends that has many uh table tennis yeah brilliant do you like it and there's there's foosball underneath what's the third game ben ice hockey ice air hockey type thing yeah ice hockey yeah it'd take a while to sort of get the layer of ice on there you just have to pour some water on and then sort of leave it like right in front how close to the freezer did it have to be to really get that layer going now it's air hockey does it actually like does it blow air um i'm gonna say it doesn't but okay that's that's pretty cool do you like it i do genuinely i do like it kids i think the kids will enjoy that yeah but yeah that's that is very kind of you Do you give gifts to all guests?

8:41Or is that... I would say, I'm not just saying this, that's probably the best gift we've ever given. It's the most expensive so far. Yeah. Really? What's nice about this one, it's quite comfortable for him to sit with as well. Yeah, I mean, we can tell you that. I was going to say, I don't need to hold this. Do you want to put it, I mean, maybe at the end you guys can have a little game. Yeah. Well, there's a bit of an issue actually. Yeah. Ramesh can hit a ball, as I've seen on a tennis court and on stage when we did the show? Yeah, so basically we did Robber Romesh first and he taught us how to play tennis and then you were kind enough to text me afterwards and say, were you doing that for comedy effect or is that really how you move?

9:31um you sort of insinuated that i was sort of subhuman with my level of coordination yeah i i i was i was genuinely surprised because obviously you you know it was league of their own and stuff like you obviously work on a sports show i've seen you doing lots of things with sports people i assumed that you were into sport that you liked it so i do like it yeah yeah so that there i wrongly assumed that you would be able to sort of hit a ball over over the net and you obviously you couldn't and but i don't know if you know this but as you were doing it you always there was always like a smile on your face right which i didn't know why you were smiling like if i couldn't do something like that i would find it really frustrating but you seem to be enjoying the fact that you couldn't do it it's so brutal i think i i didn't i didn't remember having a swirl on my face but i suspect what was happening was i was doing better than i thought i was going to do really yeah it'd be good to re-watch some of that footage together at some stage i think because yeah i yeah it wasn't it wasn't great rob did really well though yeah he was good Rob's just generally sort of better coordinated and stuff like that.

10:54Although I did watch one of your shows recently where the two of you were dancing. I think you were in Korea. The street dancing. Yeah. I think you were better than him at that, weren't you? Well, first of all, let's take Think out of there. I was much better than him. Rob can't dance for shit. He doesn't even know how to listen to music. Yeah. you know it's like uh we listen to music and it's like he can't process it i mean he's got no ability whatsoever but he's much better than me at sport um it's weird isn't it if you're as good as sport at sport as you are then to see somebody like me who is to you it's just like uh it must be like watching a different species i suppose yeah and it's also it's it's also Oh, because you said at the beginning that I taught you how to play tennis, but like you said, I...

11:51You tried to. I didn't know how to help by the end. I didn't know what to do. Have you thought about teaching tennis to kids? Well, funnily enough, I've tried with my own and it hasn't worked very well. But do you get frustrated with it? we had jamie on and jamie was like he's always comparing his children to not always that was an exaggeration this is jamie rednapp my brother's jamie as well sorry sorry so we don't have to we don't have to he we he's not replied to our emails but but jamie rednapp he um he said you know you're watching your kids and you'll come there's a danger of comparing themselves to yourself for me my i'm praying my children are nothing like me in that regard obviously yeah you know because oh absolutely yeah so for you watching your kids is there any kind of because you're so competitive is there any kind of they need to be i are you are you kind of a an angry touch a sideline parent or not no i'm definitely not angry because i've seen that like from playing sport at the highest level you know you see that a lot with parents and it can be pretty it's brutal on the kids if you've got parents that are like being super hard on them at the sidelines and shouting and screaming but it is sometimes hard to bite your tongue a little bit when you're watching them playing sport like i went along to watch my sort of second daughter went along to watch one of her hockey matches and um we were there for 45 minutes i think she touch the ball once in 45 minutes and then at the end when she comes over you know i was saying to me and my wife well oh you did amazing you know you did you did great but actually you know no i didn't feel that way but she tried her hardest but yeah touching the ball once in 45 minutes a tough watch as a parent yeah sure and then you just sort of i mean that is my kids do sport as well as doing like stage shows and stuff like that and then when they're in it for a minute you think have I come to watch a series of other children performing this thing it's like horrendous did you ever did you ever tell your daughter how you actually felt no I no I haven't but I do try to I do try to give like feedback or constructive criticism but you got to find the right way of doing it because it can go can quite easily go the wrong way yeah I mean I mean at least you've got the sort of background ability whereas if if I say to my children I think you should do this are you joking no my kids play football you know i did we did football on robin rush versus and i was so shit at it that my children were like ripped the shit out of at school because of how crap i was you know that is low i can't say that that's that's too surprising to be honest um but yeah i don't i haven't had that issue no yeah with sport anyway with other stuff i mean well I'm only really good at sort of various different sports I'm not you know like if I have to draw something for my kids I'm horrific you actually text sent me a drawing and it was bad that was horrific yeah it was really I mean my kids get angry with me they're like draw me a dog yeah and I draw a what I consider to be a dog yeah and they're very unhappy the issue is that not that you consider something different to be a dog that you both all of you agree on what a dog is the issue is the execution of the drawing we all we have a dog yeah yeah we have a puppy yeah so yeah i can't so it's there isn't it yeah and the problem is is that my wife paints and she's very good yeah so she will paint things or draw things for them yeah and they expect the same they expect the same execution from me and i can't provide that right so i've sort of gone down the of tracing things now.

15:41It feels a bit wrong, isn't it? Well, it's not just wrong, it's sad for your kids to see you doing that. Yeah. Well, that's, like tracing is for children. Doing a picture that's sort of too detailed for them to sort of do, to then see your own father. Yeah. Sort of, you know? It's sad, isn't it? It is sad. It is sad. God, this is what it feels like to be alpha. But that's what we do though, isn't it? As parents, you know, we just, you do what you can to try and make the kids you know happy yeah yeah i do do yeah and for me the difference is for you you've demonstrated throughout your career and your life sort of very admirable like uh traits and characteristics and i think the way that you speak publicly and the things that you you've done on the court and and since you've retired are all very impressive for me it's very much hiding i'm very much hiding who i am from my children because i don't want them to sort of emulate those kind of you know like for example the way i socialize um how do you socialize well i you know i sort of don't i mean i do but like what i mean is like i'm just very i'm not anti-social i'm just uh i'm not pro socializing do you know what i mean and then so then when you go and do the school run i'm very closed off and so i'm just in and out i don't want to talk to anybody and then i think that's what they're going to be like so then i start putting it on like i don't you know i don't Brent it up or whatever.

17:04I'm like, hey, how's it going? Yeah, cool. Nice one. You know, all of that. Do a bit of chat. Over do it. Yeah. Overcompensate. Yeah, overcompensate. This episode of the Romesh Ranganathan Show is brought to you by Santander, helping you pay smarter with a Santander Edge credit card, offering rewards, control and security. Feel in charge today. Make purchases knowing you could have up to 56 days to pay, giving you breathing space and flexibility when you need it. And feel confident about tomorrow because managing your payments today helps you stay on track and avoid unnecessary costs down the line.

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17:59So the last time I saw you was at the Apollo, where you did your tour show. How did you find that? I'm just going to tell you this straight out of the bat. I thought it was excellent. Thank you. It was a show where, for people that didn't go, it was a show where it was kind of you reviewing your career, a series of funny anecdotes, some behind-the-scenes stuff, some stuff that people might not know about. But the people that were there, I mean, they love. And like, when I do a comedy show, people are sort of like, do you fancy going to see Ramesh? Yeah, okay. But that's like casual. These people, they would sniff lines of Andy Murray.

18:41Do you know what I mean? They're like so, so like, I was actually blown away by it. Not surprised at all. Just blown away by how much those people love you. and then and it was an amazing thing to watch and you did it in a humorous way as well I don't know how did you find it? Yeah I found it hard yeah initially I didn't want to do it initially I'd been asked to do it I'd been asked to do like nine or ten shows and I just I wasn't that I just wasn't that keen on doing it because yeah I don't I don't love don't love speaking in public and yeah there's I'm sure you get it when you you know come out with a you know a new show or tour that you know you worry that well you know is anyone actually going to come are people going to buy tickets yeah deciding that you're going to go and do like a speaking tour for like a tennis player or an athlete you know you don't know if people are going to going to show up so yeah i was a bit uncomfortable about doing it and the whole experience i'm glad i did it in the end you know it went well people came seemed to enjoy it but it's hard when you're sitting at the front of a theater and it's like you know it's like black and you know in front of you can't see anyone you're not really interacting with them that much so you don't know whether they're actually you know if they're enjoying it or not so yeah i felt a bit uncomfortable doing it but i had some great guests come on um during the shows as well had chris hoy came john mackinroe came um so yeah it was it was good it was really good i know what doing i mean i came you did come yeah yeah and you were brilliant the crowd loved you crowd loved you they were they were so pumped when you came out well no you didn't come out for very long like it was only a few minutes but it was great i did i did want to talk to you about this actually yeah um because by the way i got i got sent a gift that said it was from you do you have any awareness of that i don't know i don't know exactly what it was but i did with Lucy who's here with me.

20:49She asked if, you know, once send gifts to everyone who came. And I said, yes, of course. It was a leg of ham. It was a leg of ham? No, it wasn't really. I just said, I just said, I just said. No, but so I came and then I think it was overrunning so that my time is condensed. But in the time that I was on, the opening was some footage of me being shit at tennis. yeah uh with you and then during the thing which i'd been led to believe was just a relaxed chat and sort of you know us having a bit of back and forth i then had to play tennis on stage at the apollo well i don't know if that's what you did i wouldn't consider that tennis but we had tennis rackets and a bowl um and yeah well i did i did return something yeah yeah you you made contact with the ball a couple of times.

21:42But it went... I thought it went well. I thought you were brilliant. Oh, thanks. That's very kind. I thought the show was excellent. And I get why you wouldn't like it, but I think you should do it again. There's more appetite for it. I think, like, squeeze as much money out of this as you can, man. Genuinely, like, I have to write a fucking show. You can just go up and go, yeah, and then I was nervous, but it went okay in the end. And fucking people are loving it. That was pretty good, actually. That was pretty good. And what was the gift? Pardon? Was it better than... It was like a little hamper.

22:18It wasn't like a little hamper. That's exactly what it was. Yeah. But it was really nice. Thank you. I was really shocked. Lisa was very happy, actually, because she loves you. Does she? Yeah. So to have something arrive at our house that Sir Andy Murray sort of knows about felt like a real honour, so thank you. That's all right. Anyway, we need to actually chat about your career. We don't need to, do we? Do you want to? Not massively. Okay. Is there anything else you want to talk about? Golf. We can chat a bit about you as well. I mean, you've got so much going on. I don't do a whole lot now, but you, I mean, you're on everything, aren't you?

22:54So you've got all sorts. Yeah. Podcast, TV, tours. We were supposed to do a podcast together, weren't we? Do you remember? We spoke about it, didn't we? Yeah. We did sport relief together. that went well didn't it yeah we did the mini golf yeah that was good fun that was fun yeah and then people were like oh my god this could be a thing and then we did the podcast thing and then they decided it wasn't the thing wasn't it yeah yeah i think you went and you're on on direction didn't you and started your own show that's not what happened is that what you think happened sort of feels like that's what happened yeah i mean we were sitting here in this beautiful studio in central london i mean it has literally happened oh yeah yeah that's true yeah it's hard to argue but this is years later you know yeah anyway it was like it was i enjoyed our pilot though that we did yeah it was good what was it what was it you you i think you sort of came up with the name was it an odd an odd couple or something an odd something that was yeah maybe that was the problem how did you how did you come up with that Well, I dabbled with a couple of names, Coffee and Cream, Choco Vanilla, and then the production company said you can't do any of that.

24:15Then I thought about Pax and Honks, like a double act, but they said no to that as well. So eventually, I think it was Odd Couple. I did actually think it was really good. I did think it was going to be us chatting about sports news and stuff like that. But, you know, it's one of those things that didn't happen. Would have been great, though. I actually think, because one of the things that we talked about when you came on Rob and Romesh was that you are, like, you're sort of one of, you're so funny, right? Like, properly amazing dry sense of humour. But it's something that not everybody knows about you or didn't know about you until maybe later on and stuff.

24:55And everything you say kind of gets, when we did Rob and Romesh, you were sort of saying that you you tried to be avoid any controversy in your interviews and so maybe people didn't see how funny and how entertaining you could be is that something that you feel more comfortable about showing now I mean you're retired so it's less I think it depends a bit on the like the situation like I feel comfortable in this situation because I know that if I say the wrong thing or do the you know do the wrong thing that you know you're not trying to you know well i don't think you are and you're trying to create like the wrong headline or make me look bad or whatever and i had a few experiences earlier in my career where i was kind of being myself and it created like quite a lot of like drama and controversy which then i found quite tiring like when i was trying to just play tennis professionally and you've got all these other distractions going on from something that you said and then you lose trust in some of the people that you're like whether that's journalists or media there's a bit of loss of trust there and then you kind of close yourself off a bit and it then doesn't work for anyone like i just felt really uncomfortable being interviewed being in front of cameras and yeah i just preferred to say less and focus on on my tennis to be honest whereas now you know i don't have to worry i have to worry about that anymore yeah but do you do you think that you will like are you becoming more comfortable in public speaking and stuff like that and being interviewed you seem super comfortable at the apollo well but i didn't i didn't feel that i was really like nervous and quite anxious before before doing it it depends on depends on the situation depends on the scenario like coming here i was not nervous about you know wasn't nervous about coming here to go on a podcast or be interviewed and um i definitely more comfortable like in myself i think growing up like in public when you're 20 21 years old and you don't really know yourself that well um you know and then you start to get judged just not on like your job and what you're doing but whether that's like how you look how you speak how you behave it's quite an odd way to to grow up really and um you're sort of not given the fortune of like just being able to like make mistakes like everyone does at that age you kind of get criticized for them and i think it wasn't so much at the start of my career but now the social media and everything it's quite hard i think for you know young professionals and you know famous people to to grow up in the spotlight it's hard i do feel sorry for like anybody you sort of any footballers that i follow on social media you're like they'll go if they've lost a game they'll go tough game today but we move and then the first comment is get the fuck out my club you know like so like it's just like horrific in a way and i don't even know if you're 2021 and you're just trying to like do your job to the best of your ability and there's people just give you loads of shit it's just i don't know how mentally you even cope with that yeah and i think that there's also a difference i think like in sport between like sledging or like you know making a funny comment about a result or a shot that you hit or whatever but with social media and people will just send just send abuse yeah basically and you saw it actually a bit at the i don't know how much you follow golf but at the rider car yeah i know um uh rory mccleroy got really pissed off with it right yeah but people are just in the crowd just going like fuck you rory yeah and it's like it's not someone making a funny comment about a shot that you hit or a bad shot it's just people feeling like they can stand stand there and just swear at the athlete and you know you see it when footballer goes to take a corner you know the crowd are just hurling all sorts of insults and they're not allowed to react or respond to that so i don't really know why it's accepted in sport tolerated i don't know do you think it's just because people think and i don't agree with this by the way but people just think you're getting paid a shit ton of money so part of the job is just take whatever is given to you i mean i don't think that's right but that is part of the attitude isn't it yeah yeah a little bit and it's like well we're paying money for a ticket yeah but if someone came to what might have happened at one of your shows i don't know but if someone's if someone's paid money to one of your to come and watch one of your shows and they're standing up in the front row going you know you're fucking you're fucking useless it's a worst show ever you're terrible that wouldn't get tolerated in that situation.

29:26The person would get kicked out. Yeah. But I don't know. And sport just gets accepted. Yeah. So what is your golf like now? Are you going to go pro? I mean, as much as I would like to, I'm not. I mean, I would love to. I think it's a great, great game. My body is obviously physically pretty beat up from the tennis. It still looks great, though. Thank you. Yeah. Got a great body. I appreciate that. Thank you. I appreciate that. Remember when you were putting on some of the Castor clothing at the Rob and Ramesh thing, you two looked quite interesting and it was quite snug, wasn't it? I think it's good for Castor to see that because what they're doing is, because it was a photo shoot, you were modelling some of the stuff and they're looking at it on you going, doesn't it look great?

30:19Doesn't it look great? and then two regular humans turned up and put it on and it looked fucking illegal. It looked insane. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yours looked marginally better than Rob's though, didn't it? I think. I mean, we've both got fairly comedic bodies, I would say. Even now, having lost a bit of weight, it's still comedic. Like when we did the Rob and Romish ballet episode, they said, go and put this training gear on. So you put it out, put it on. I've seen it, yeah. I've seen the episode. And then when we came out of the dressing room, the production team were like, this is so funny.

30:50this is so fun we haven't done anything yeah what you're saying is our bodies look funny in this clothing yeah so anyway how are you how are you how often are you playing i play three or four times a week it depends i i don't play on weekends right um i play during the kids school hours when i drop them at school go play some golf like if i don't have any work on so like today if I wasn't here I'd be I'd be playing golf right um but yeah that's are you thinking about golf now like I was on the way here yeah not right now but I was on the way do you not find it difficult swinging it with Kim to go play golf she I think that that's she kind of I think wants me out of the house right I don't think she wants me in the house all day like bothering her to be honest so Yeah, she's fine with it.

31:42Okay. So long as I can help with, like, drop off, pick up. And then during the day she doesn't mind? It doesn't like she massively wants to see me during the day. That's what I think. Yeah. Not about your marriage, but I just sort of sometimes think when I'm back, like from work or whatever, and I'm around a lot, I think that actually what I'm doing is highlighting to Lisa that maybe it's better if I'm away. Yeah. I went to the Oasis concert with my wife a few months ago. Flex. Yeah. Good question. Did you get free tickets? Yes. Sir Andy Murray. What a life, man. Did you go? I bet you got free tickets as well.

32:25Why are you trying to make me feel bad? I bet you went and got multiple free tickets. I was supposed to go, but I didn't go in the end. I mean, that's even more of a flex. You turned down free tickets to Oasis. I mean Would you have loved those tickets? Yeah Do you know what I did? Weirdly They sent me the paper tickets I just burnt them ceremoniously It's a real dick move No the honest truth is I was offered Oasis tickets To pay for Yeah But I didn't I didn't because I felt like I wasn't a big enough Because I thought the tickets Were hard to come by Oh my god What Were you trying to like Just like humble Romesh here You thought tickets were too hard to come by i mean we're sitting here in a two-story yeah studio that you own in central london i mean you're doing all right yeah but what i mean is what i'm saying is people are desperate to get oasis tickets right and i'm like a casual right so i didn't want to you know take the tickets some that's really humble that's really admirable can we put that in the trailer please now that you've retired obviously like when you're playing the game you are you know you're constantly and you are somebody who is constantly trying to look to the next thing you could do and you know you you you had a bad luck with injuries and you're trying to keep pushing back and and you know do whatever you can and i imagine when you're in that state mind state you're not able to smell the roses and think about what it is you've achieved have you now got to a state where and I know you did a bit of it on the tour, but you're doing that for the benefit of the audience rather than for your own benefit.

34:04Are you able now to look back and go, that was a great career and I really feel happy with what I've achieved? Yeah, and that happened quite quickly after I finished, to be honest. I think it helped that when I was ready to retire, like physically, I couldn't really play to the level I wanted to anymore. And my body was kind of telling me like, you know, it's time. So I didn't feel like I still had much more to give. But within like 10 days, two weeks of finishing, like I looked back and was like, yeah, like, wow, I can't believe like I managed to do these things and achieve these things. And, you know, when I was playing, I didn't really have much pride in my career because a lot of times, you know, I was surrounded by three of the best tennis players of all time.

34:53And your achievements are kind of, you know, minuscule in comparison to those guys. And you're looking to them, you know, one, to try and learn and improve, but also you want to try and match their results. And you're having to beat these players. So I didn't have much pride in what I'd achieved whilst I was playing, but like very quickly when I finished my whole, I don't know, like perception of my career and what I achieved changed drastically. And it's a shame. I wish looking back, like I'd been a bit more, well, just kinder to myself and enjoyed, you know, enjoyed my career a little bit more.

35:31but you know it's hard like when you're trying to achieve things there's always like the next tournament or the next week there's always pressure to go out there and perform and it's yeah it's hard were you enjoying it at the time then though when i was playing yeah i mean obviously you love tennis but what i mean is because you're you're constantly pushing yourself to do the next thing or you're pushing against whatever difficulties you're having are you able to actually sit in the moment and enjoy it what during your career were you enjoying it i i loved i love the training and i love the whole process of like trying to get better and improve i didn't enjoy the matches um you know i found matches stressful i found competition stressful obviously when the outcome was how you wanted if you won a match or a tournament like that was good but the same time you the way that tennis works you don't really get the chance to enjoy it for long like when i won the olympics in 2016 in rio finished my match it was like four over four hours do get the gold medal do a few interviews and then i flew that night like 12 hours from rio to cincinnati to go and play a tournament which was starting two days later and so you're immediately right on to another match another competition and you're not i wish i'd taken more time in those moments to like i didn't need to go and play in cincinnati i could have gone no i'm not playing that week i'm going to enjoy this moment like i worked really hard for this this is something i always wanted to achieve so i wish i'd yeah i wish i'd taken my time in those moments to actually enjoy them more because yeah i didn't um and yeah i regret that it is i do think it's difficult and i'm not comparing you know i'm just from my experience of that is that what you think is in my opinion is i feel so lucky to be doing this right yeah i couldn't if you'd have said to me when i was younger that this is going to be your job i wouldn't have been able to believe it it's like it is your dream and so then the idea of of turning it down to have some some downtime it feels ungrateful i think it's like you just sort of feel like i've been given this amazing thing and then they're going can you go and do this thing now why am i saying no to that Like this is something that I really, I've always wanted to do and there's more of it.

37:50And so I have to do it, even though I feel like I'm knackered and actually I could do with a bit of time at home. You sort of go, am I being a prick now? You know, like, because you're lucky. You're so, you know, we're so lucky to be doing whatever it is we do. I think that's where the, I feel like that's where the pressure comes from for me. Sometimes when I'm like going from a tour to a TV show to a thing and I haven't spaced out in my schedule, it's because I think, fucking hell, if you just said to Romesh, like even five years like more 10 years ago this is going to be what the options are you gonna i would have been like holy shit i can't believe it i think that's where it sort of comes from right yeah i mean i guess everyone's kind of different i mean i obviously look back and i'm like if someone had said to me when i was 17 18 years old like you'll get to play in a wimbledon final i wouldn't have really actually cared at that age like whether i won or lost that match like i be like yeah i'm gonna you know i'd take that yeah um but then once i got there it was more just that that pressure to win and perform because that's just how you know how sport that's how it feels like sport is when you're in it you know that you're always having to to win the next match and win the next tournament and if you lose in the final it's like well why didn't you win like how can you you know are you mentally strong enough is your game good enough are you physically be strong enough that yeah there's just there's just always a pressure to go out there and perform and that yeah that's that's hard it's one of the great things about sport as well but it's yeah it's difficult at the same time yeah um it's difficult being as competitive as we are um do you ever what you know no i'm saying we're both yeah involving cutthroat stuff i mean it's hard it's fucking hard that grind yeah you know you know i'm talking about i know exactly what you're talking about yeah yeah um so now like you're around a lot more at home yeah how are you finding it i love it yeah i love it yeah when you watch uh have you watched the tyson fury documentary i've seen bits of it i've not seen all of them so you know i'm loathe to sort of uh talk too much about Tyson Fury in case he watches and smashes my face in.

39:59But what I would say is that he sort of talked a lot about wanting to be at home. But then when he was kind of kicking around at home, he started to find it a little bit, you know, because when you're at home, you're not a Tyson Fury, you know, Sir Andy Murray outside the house, absolute legend, everybody like, you know, everybody's like in awe of you. When you go into the house, it's a bit different, isn't it? And those people see, you know, dad, husband, it's a bit, I mean, I'm sure they think you're a legendary, but in a different way you know um it some people find that difficult some people that are like high profile or have achieved that level that you have will find that difficult how do you find it like the sort of relative normality genuinely i've loved it and i was i was worried about that like when i finished playing i was worried about you know what's you know what's life going to look like now that i don't have tennis and don't have a routine or you know i don't essentially don't have a job um anymore but yeah it's one of the downsides of playing sports that was away loads I missed you know a lot of you know things when my kids were growing up you know you miss birthdays and you know various you know I don't know sports matches and first days of school and you know yeah I missed a lot of that and now when I'm home I get to do all of it and yeah just do normal stuff and i i don't have that pressure to like perform anymore and you know i don't have to wake up in the morning when my body hurts and go and you know train and work hard i just get to be a dad and i love it so so far anyway it's been yeah it's been good yeah do they um do they think that you're do they have an appreciation for what it is you've achieved i don't know i don't i don't think i don't think they've got any any interest in that my eldest daughter i mean hates hates it but she hates it.

41:49Well, I don't know if she hates it or hates me, but she just doesn't want to, she doesn't want to be seen out of the house with me. So like, I'm not allowed like a school drop off. I'm not allowed to leave the car. It's like, do not open the door of the car. You're staying in here. You know, like she's embarrassed by, embarrassed by me. Do you think, cause my kids are a bit like that. Really? Yeah. And, and I'm, you know, it's different. Like tennis is tennis, but I'm fucking, like I'm all over the, I'm fucking like entertainment. I'm basically, you know, essentially British television. Yeah. You know, but they are.