"Just let her be" - Murray to British media about Emma Raducanu

Tennis superstar Andy Murray has come out in defence of Emma Raducanu, saying that the teenage Brit should be given time to grow and mature as an athlete.

Speaking to Matt Graveling of BBC Sports, the three-time Grand Slam champion spoke about how the media should be protecting the 19-year-old at this stage of her career. He said:

"I think there needs to be like a level of trust and respect between the players and the media. I also had problems earlier in my career where maybe certain things I said got taken out of context or joke that I might have made, you know, turned into big stories and big headlines where it turned things a bit sour and negative."

The former World No. 1 also spoke about how Raducanu is still very young and her career is very much in its infancy. The Scotsman added that athletes, like any regular person, also make mistakes when they are coming up:

"Just let her be who she is, and you know, she might say some things that are a joke or maybe she doesn't mean or whatever. There's a few people in this room I'm sure when they were 18 or 19, made some mistakes and did some things they shouldn't have done and said some things they definitely shouldn't have said and athletes are the same. We will make mistakes and say the wrong things at time but just maybe don't judge us too harshly when we do that and I'm sure that would help Emma a little bit."