London, June 24 (UNI) The All England Club is set to recognise Sir Andy Murray's contribution to tennis with a statue of him at Wimbledon.

Murray ended Britain's 77-year wait for a men's singles champion at Wimbledon with a memorable victory over Novak Djokovic in 2013, and triumphed again at SW19 in 2016 when he beat Milos Raonic.

Former Wimbledon chief executive Richard Lewis told BBC Sport in 2019 the club would honour Murray with a statue when he finished playing.

The Scot retired from professional tennis in August 2024 following an appearance at the Olympic Games in Paris.

Debbie Jevans, chair of the All England Club, told the Ainslie + Ainslie Performance People podcast, external it is now in discussions with 38-year-old Murray to make good on the promise and hoped to have the statue in place by 2027.

"We are looking to have a statue of Andy Murray here at Wimbledon and we're working closely with him and his team," Jevans said.

"The ambition is that we would unveil that at the 150th anniversary of our first championship, which was 1877. He's got to rightly be very involved in that and he and his team will be."

A bronze statue of Fred Perry, the last British men's champion before Murray, was erected at Wimbledon in 1984 to mark the 50th anniversary of his first singles championship.

Jevans said Murray would be equally deserving of being immortalised having provided "special" moments in the club's history.

"Now he's retired, we're very much looking at how we can embrace him, for him to be a part of the club in the long term," she added.

"We looked at Rafa Nadal having that sort of plaque unveiled to him at Roland Garros which was all very special. We thought, what do we want for Andy?"

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