Wimbledon SLAMMED after Andy Murray is left off poster of former SW19 champions – with the two-time winner’s uncle calling the snub ‘appalling at every level’
- Wimbledon’s Twitter account posted the promotional poster on Tuesday
- Fans immediately noticed the absence of two-time SW19 champion Murray
- There was confusion that Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner were so prominent
Wimbledon has sparked a furious backlash to its promotional campaign for the 2023 Championships with a poster of past and present champions which leaves out Andy Murray.
Members of the 36 year-old Scot’s family were incensed by a prominent piece of artwork for the tournament which showed an array of players backstage in the clubhouse close to the entrance of the Centre Court.
The two most prominently featured characters are young US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz and, even more strangely, his contemporary Jannik Sinner – the highly promising player from Italy but hardly a legend of the All England Club.
Moreover, the Williams sisters, who have twelve Wimbledon singles titles between them, are relegated right to the background at the top of the stairs in the picture.
The image drew the ire of social media, and more specifically those close to Murray, the twice winner who, in 2013, broke a 77-year drought of British male winners at the tournament.
Andy Murray’s fans and relatives have been angered by his absence from a promotion poster for this year’s Wimbledon depicting champions of the past and present
The tweet wanted to celebrate popular Wimbledon figures of the past and the present
Murray ended a 77-year wait for a British men’s singles champion at Wimbledon in 2013 (left) and then won again in 2016 (right)
Murray’s uncle Niall Erskine described his omission from the poster as appalling at every level’
On Instagram Jamie Murray, himself a doubles champion at SW19, asked ‘Where’s Andy Murray?’.
The player’s uncle Niall Erskine, who is the brother of Mum Judy, said on Twitter: ‘Appalling at every level, all about the men in the forefront and your own British history maker nowhere to be seen. You should be ashamed of yourselves.’
On social media it was also pointed out that the women’s legends, such as Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, have been demoted behind the men.
It seems that the general idea was to promote Alcaraz and Sinner as representing a new generation of stars. Wimbledon is running a promotional campaign this year entitled: ‘Always Like Never Before’.
Wimbledon fans were also left bemused and angered at Murray’s omission, plus other aspects
‘Worry not, there are more paintings on the way,’ responded the illustrator responsible, Grant Gruenhaupt.
The absence of seven-times champion Pete Sampras also raised some eyebrows, with Wimbledon blind to the danger of seemingly ranking their own past winners in an official campaign.
Asked on Wednesday at the Cinch Championships whether he thought it was disrespectful to his brother, Jamie Murray replied: ‘I thought so. I mean he was part of the big four for 10 years, maybe more.
‘Obviously he was No 1 in the world and then he smashed up his hip, and since then it’s been it’s been a bit tough going for him.
‘But he won the singles twice in an incredible era of tennis and made another final. I thought it was a bit of a slight especially with everything that he brought to the tournament for so long.
‘You know, the whole country like falling in behind his kind of journey to try to become the champion, but there you go.’
Jamie Murray (left), pictured with Andy and their mum Judy, was critical of the omission