THE Glasgow public will get a rare chance to witness one of their favourite sons on home soil when Andy Murray plays a charity exhibition event in the SSE Hydro on the evening of Wednesday September 21. Andy Murray Live is the World No 2's personal brainchild, a night of tennis and entertainment which will see him take on Gael Monfils at singles, then be joined by his brother Jamie in a doubles match against Monfils and British tennis legend Tim Henman.
Half of all seats at the venue, which will have a capacity of around 10,000 for the event, will cost £25 or under, with proceeds shared between two different charities, global children's organisation Unicef, of whom Andy Murray has become an official ambassador, and local charity Young People's Futures. The occasion, which has been in the pipeline for years, is planned as an annual event and Murray said that the exuberant Monfils has always been envisaged as the opponent. Discussions are under way with other comedians and performers to be part of the night.
"We have been speaking about it for a couple of years with the guys that I work with and my management team," said the World No 2. "It finally came together and I thought Glasgow was a good place to do it, because we had some fantastic crowds when we played there in the Davis Cup and it was nice to bring it back. I was born there too and it is all about giving back to Glasgow and the community there, not only for what they did in the Davis Cup, but the support I have had throughout my whole career from back in Scotland is fantastic and we don't have ay world class tennis events up there.
"I have been speaking about trying to do an event like this for a number of years and Gael was the first person I always thought of, because of how he plays the game," added the World No 2. "I know him very well, we played the first time together when he was 11 and I was 10 and he will certainly entertain all the fans who come to watch. He is playing unbelievable tennis right now. Tennis is known to be a very expensive sport and not all that accessible at times so hopefully the ticket price will help with that. I'm looking forward to bringing top level tennis to Glasgow on an annual basis and making this event bigger and better every year."
The event will mark the first ever tennis event at the Hydro and presenting partner Colin Banks of SSE said: "We are proud to be partnering with 'Andy Murray Live', which will see world class tennis played at the SSE Hydro for the very first time."
Ann Lawrance, of Young People's Futures, was visibly emotional at the opportunity her charity had been given. "Thanks so much to Andy for choosing our charity," she said. "We have very limited facilities within our area, so we are hoping this opportunity can link into our feasibility study for a new facility within Possilpark."
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