Sculptor of planned Andy Murray statue at Wimbledon understands risks involved

LONDON (AP) — Sports statues have gone famously wrong in the past. That’s something Andy Murray is well aware of.

When he saw a terracotta warrior statue of himself at a Shanghai tennis tournament in 2011, Murray deadpanned, “I thought I was better looking than that.”

Wimbledon plans to unveil its own statute of the two-time champion at the All England Club next year and has tasked renowned sculptor David Williams-Ellis to get it right.

“I think he was just concerned that it doesn’t end up like some of the sporting sculptures that are prevalent around stadiums and around the world,” Williams-Ellis said Saturday at the grass-court tournament.

The infamous Cristiano Ronaldo bust leads the list of sports statutes that have received less-than-flattering reviews. More recently, one art critic compared a Harry Kane bronze statue to a comic strip character.

Williams-Ellis had a 90-minute session with Murray — who in 2013 became the first British man to win the Wimbledon singles title in 77 years — to work on poses.

“The likeness is essential, but the likeness of his movement and character is also essential,” the British sculptor explained. “Yeah, there are lots of risks. We’ve all seen — I won’t mention any names about other sculptures that have been made in Britain — that have not been a success.

“I don’t want to be one of those, and I aim not to be.”

The location for the bronze statue on the Wimbledon grounds hasn’t been announced and Williams-Ellis declined to offer specifics about the pose.

“He’s going to have a tennis racket in his hand and it’s going to be moving and its going to be action,” he explained, adding that it will depict Murray in the 23-to-25-year-old age range.

“What I wanted to capture in the sculpture was movement and energy,” Williams-Ellis added, along with Murray’s “incredibly nice, soft side.”

He has been working on the statute for the past nine months. He’s relying on “masses” of photos, screenshots of videos, and a 23-year-old model who acts as a stand-in for the 6-foot-3 Murray, who won his other Wimbledon singles title in 2016.

The statue will be “life-size and a fifth,” added Williams-Ellis, whose past work includes a D-Day piece in Normandy and a statue for Manchester City soccer club.

“With Andy, I want to capture that spring and that power and that instantaneousness that great tennis players have,” he said.

The hardest part?

“Modern tennis shoes are incredibly difficult to sculpt,” Williams-Ellis said. “They are computer-designed. I’ll get them right, but I’ve had lots and lots of problems.”

Scotland-native Murray also won two Olympic gold medals for Britain in men’s singles — at the 2012 London Games held at the All England Club and at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

What about other Wimbledon champions?

A statue of Fred Perry, a three-time champion in the amateur era, is located outside Centre Court and was unveiled in 1984. Bronze busts of women’s champions Kathleen McKane Godfree, Dorothy Round, Angela Mortimer, Ann Jones and Virginia Wade were unveiled in 2004.

Would Wimbledon consider erecting statues of non-British champions, such as Martina Navratilova, Serena Williams or Roger Federer? The French Open honored 14-time Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal with a statue outside Court Philippe Chatrier.

“There are currently no plans for sculptures of international players to be installed at Wimbledon,” the club said in a statement. “However we would not rule anything out for the future.”

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis