Not enough of a racket: One in five Brits have never heard of Andy Murray
- Over one in ten people in Glasgow haven’t heard of fellow Glaswegian Murray
- A further 36% haven’t heard of world number one, Novak Djokovic
- Brits attend Wimbledon for the strawberries, cream and celebrity spotting, not to watch the sport
- One in ten believe players play tennis with a bat
As Andy Murray is left off new artwork of former SW19 champions, it looks like Wimbledon aren’t the only ones that have forgotten about him – according to new research, most Brits claim they have never heard of him!
The research by Paddy Power Bingo, tested the nations knowledge of the oldest tennis tournament in the world, to find out how much Brits really know about the globally famous event they play host to.
Whilst almost one in five (19%) Brits have never heard of national treasure and former two-time Wimbledon champ, Andy Murray, including over one in ten (12%) from his hometown Glasgow – a much larger 36% have never heard of the 23-time Grand Slam title holder, Novak Djokovic. Despite Carlos Alcaraz recently taking the world number one spot from Djokovic, a huge 85% of Brits claim they’ve never heard of him – us neither!
Brits’ awareness of tennis legends:
| Rank | Tennis player | Proportion of people that don’t know the player |
| 1 | Novak Djokovic | 36% |
| 2 | Venus Williams | 33% |
| 3 | Roger Federer | 32% |
| 4 | Serena Williams | 25% |
| 5 | Andy Murray | 19% |
The research also revealed that despite the tournament featuring the best tennis players in the world, under half of the nation (47%) would attend SW19 for the sport itself. Instead, top reasons for attending included eating strawberries and cream (24%), celebrity spotting (17%) and drinking in the sunshine (17%).
For those making it courtside to enjoy strawberries and cream in the sun, despite strict rules during play, 16% of respondents wrongly believe that cheering during a rally is acceptable, when this is strictly prohibited.
This isn’t the only misconception Brits have around Wimbledon, as a small yet shocking 4% said that Sue Barker, former Wimbledon presenter, was the first ever Wimbledon winner – she’s not that old! In fact, the first Wimbledon Championships took place in 1877, with Spencer Gore taking the prize. Similarly, an additional 4% said that Roger Federer – who holds eight Wimbledon titles – has never won Wimbledon.
When it comes to watching the tennis, it seems Brits struggle with their knowledge here too – just 65% are aware of well-known tennis term ‘deuce’, and instead believe that bat (10%), offside (7%) and even goal (4%) are tennis terms.
A spokesperson for Paddy Power Bingo said, “It’s quite hard to miss Wimbledon when it’s on each year, but I don’t recall seeing any goals scored with tennis bats last time I watched.
“Yet, from not knowing the world number one to thinking you can give players a big old cheer as they’re about to serve, Brits might not know as much about Wimbledon as we might think. Living up to expectations, it seems they’d rather get tipsy in the sunshine and spot some celebs! Who can blame them though, eh?”