Tennis could become irrelevant unless more is done to promote it says Judy Murray

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Judy Murray has warned that tennis could go back to being 'largely irrelevant'

She called for action to capitalise on the interest in the sport fuelled by her sons' success, and build a legacy for the game.

Last year was a stellar year for the Murray family, with both Andy and Jamie finishing 2016 as world number one tennis players.

Sir Andy Murray won Wimbledon and Olympic gold before finishing the season with his 24th straight victory to lift the ATP World Tour Finals trophy and clinch the year-end world number one ranking. He rounded off the year with a knighthood in the New Year's Honours list.

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His brother Jamie reached the number one ranking in men's doubles tennis earlier in the year.

Mrs Murray said that the sold-out Davis Cup matches in Glasgow and Andy's sold-out exhibition match at the SSE Hydro in the city showed there was a huge interest in the sport, but that it was concerning no-one is building on that.

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She called for action to capitalise on the interest in the sport fuelled by her sons' success

Speaking to John Beattie for the BBC Scotland Timeline programme, she said: "There is a huge appetite for it not just for people to play but to watch it within Scotland. And I think what has worried me is seeing that nobody else is really grasping this opportunity to grow our sport at this kind of boom time.

Nobody else is really grasping this opportunity to grow our sport

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Judy Murray

"Andy and Jamie may only play for another two or three years and when they stop playing that's too late to start creating a legacy, you have to start to jump on it now because if you wait two or three years, when they've gone, tennis could go back to being largely irrelevant in this country again."

She also said that there is not a level playing field for access to the sport.

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Jamie Murray reached the number one ranking in men's doubles tennis earlier in the year

Mrs Murray told the programme: "If there are not opportunities within state schools and within the locality you live in that make it easy for kids to go into a sport and develop at it, then it really is again up to the parents to try to support that love or desire of what the child wants to do.

"If you're in the east end of Glasgow for example which has hosted two semi-finals of the Davis Cup and doesn't have one public tennis court for anybody to play on, so anyone who's inspired by watching that in their backyard isn't going to be able to play.

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Mrs Murray believes children should have more opportunity to play the sport if they are interested

"And that's my point, you put on the big events, get people excited but then the opportunity isn't there to try it."

She added: "It's got to be cheap, it's got to be affordable."

Mrs Murray runs the Tennis On The Road project which is designed to introduce children to tennis in parts of the country where courts and coaches are rarely found.

She also created Miss-Hits which aims to make the sport more welcoming and exciting for girls aged five to eight.

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