Andy Murray shared his thoughts on the tragic events in Nottingham that occurred just hours before tennis was supposed to start in the city.
Nottingham traditionally hosts both an ATP and WTA event in the same week leading up to Wimbledon. That's the case this week (June 12th-18th), with the WTA one being the bigger event traditionally. It's a WTA 250 event as opposed to the ATP one which is a challenger event.
Even so, both the draws are generally filled with very good players and one of those is Andy Murray who is fresh off his triumph in Surbiton last week. It was a great week as the Brit is looking to push for more in hopes of becoming a seed at the grand slam. He'll need a good run in the city and he started off well winning his first round comfortably.
The match almost didn't happen due to tragic events in the city that saw multiple people lose their lives at the hands of a 31-year-old suspect who was arrested in the hours after the incidents. As everyone in the United Kingdom, Murray was shocked by the news.
It was obviously shocking when I woke up this morning. When I was going down to breakfast a few messages on our team chat came up. We are staying in the city centre and had been out for dinner last night and walking around those areas. You never expect something like that to happen.
Even though there was some uncertainty about tennis happening at all, the organisers eventually came to the conclusion that the play will go on as planned. The situation was under control and the suspect was in custody which contributed to the decision.
Really shocking and obviously heartbreaking for the victims and the people involved. We were talking about it this morning, saying that we didn't know if the tournament was going to be suspended for the day because there are way more important things than a tennis event.