The nation will be on the edge of their seats as Andy Murray begins his eighth Wimbledon campaign but no one will be more nervous than his mum Judy.
The Dunblane-born tennis ace came agonisingly close to taking the coveted title last year, famously breaking down in tears on centre court after losing his first All England Club final to Roger Federer.
An emotional Judy Murray applauded supportively in the stand, her head bowed as the television cameras focused on her reactions, before burying her head in a friend’s shoulderwhen the tears flowed.
The 53-year-old former tennis pro turned coach will once again watch her son’s every game, set and match at SW19, but she admits that it doesn’t get any easier.
“He’s been playing in Wimbledon since 2005, I think he missed just one year through injury, and you have your own way of dealing with it,” she told The Courier.
“I’ve done it many times but it doesn’t get any less stressful.”
As well as supporting Andy from the stands as he bids to become the first British champion since Fred Perry in 1936, Judy will be spending time with her son at his home in Surrey during the tournament.
She said: “The grass court season is the time when he can actually stay at home.”
“He lives about half an hour away from Wimbledon so he has that luxury of being able to stay at home. It is nice to be able to spend a bit of family time and be in his own surroundings with his girlfriend and his dogs,” Judy said.
If Murray gets through the early stages of the tournament, the 26-year-old world number two could come up against top seeds Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, two-time winner Rafael Nadal or defending champion Roger Federer.
However, Judy would not be drawn on her son’s chances at Wimbledon.
“You never look further than the first round,” she said.
The match will see Andy take on Germany’s Benjamin Becker, who he despatched at the Aegon Championships in straight sets before winning the tournament at Queen’s Club last week.
Judy said: “There’s always an advantage when you’ve played somebody recently, in terms of working out your game plan and tactics, particularly when it’s on the same surface.”
The people of Andy’s home town are fiercely proud of their local hero packing Dunblane’s pubs, hotels and tennis club to cheer him on. Bridge of Allan-born Judy says her son draws strength from this backing.
“He always has incredible support from the local communities,” she said. “They really push the boat out at this time of year. ”
Judy spoke to The Courier at the Royal Highland Show, where she was showcasing her Set4Sport initiative, which aims to get children active. The programme centres on homemade games she played with her sons when they were growing up.
She explained: “They’re all games we made up when Jamie and Andy were small. I had two boisterous young boys at home and not much money, so we were always challenging ourselves to find things that we could do when the weather’s bad, often it was things we could do inside, without spending a lot of money.
“Biscuit tin lid cereal boxes, for example. We played that with cereal boxes for the net, biscuit lids for bats and a ping pong ball. It’s all simple stuff and you don’t need to go out and spend any money or book a pitch to do it.”
It was these activities that contributed to Andy and Jamie’s success on the tennis court, according to Judy.
“I believe that doing so many fun activities when the kids were small helped them to develop good hand-eye coordination,” she said.
“Andy, as well as being a really good tennis player, was also an extremely good football player. Up to age 14 he was playing as much football as tennis and he had an opportunity to do something with Rangers when he was 14 that’s when he made the decision to go into tennis.
“And Jamie was a pre-handicapper at golf when he was 16.”
Free information about Set4Sport’s activities, such as cereal box tennis, is available across a range of platforms.
Judy added: “We’re sharing them with as many people as we can through the roadshow, a website, an app that’s free to download, and we have a free book, so everything is available free of charge because of the support that we got from RBS.”