Twenty years since Andy Murray won the junior title here at the US Open, his protegee Charlie Robertson is on a mission to do the same – with a little help from his ‘moody’ older sister.
‘It would be pretty cool for another Scottish boy to do the same as Andy,’ said Robertson.
The 17-year-old from Guthrie, near Forfar has been taken under the wing of the Murray family. He has known Judy and Jamie for some time and then this summer he was invited to a post-Wimbledon training camp with Andy in Greece.
Here in New York he is through to the quarter-finals of the junior event without dropping a set, and is being coached by his elder sister Kirsty, 23.
‘She’s very moody if she doesn’t get her way,’ said Robertson, asked what it is like having his sister as his coach. ‘It’s good because she tells me what to do and I’ll do it. Because I don’t she’ll tell my mom and then I’ll get s*** for it, so no matter what…
British starlet Charlie Robertson, 17, has reached the US Open boys’ singles quarter-finals
Robertson has not dropped a set against his first three opponents at Flushing Meadows
‘She played uni tennis and she’s really good on the physical side. I think she’s going to either become a tennis coach or a fitness coach.’
And what about taking to the practice court in Greece with his country’s greatest ever sportsperson? ‘I was very nervous when I first met him,’ replied Robertson. ‘But, honestly, he’s hilarious. He’s so funny. And he just makes you feel like part of the group.
‘He has helped me with parts of my game. Coming from him it’s quite powerful for me, being a Scotsman.
‘Judy always recognizes all the young Scots. And the Murray brothers love to see Scots doing well. As soon as they see that, they like to help, which is really nice.’
What an incredible role model for a young man to have, and Charlie can even remember seeing Murray win his first Wimbledon title in 2013. ‘We were watching it outside in my garden, on a really nice day,’ he said. ‘I would have been six years old.’
Robertson works with Murray’s former strength and conditioning coach Matt Little, and is kitted out in Castore, the sportswear company in which the great man is a major investor.
Like Andy, Charlie has an older brother, Harry, who is at university in Edinburgh and a keen golfer.
Robertson pictured at Wimbledon earlier this year after practicing with Andy Murray (right)
Murray pictured in 2004 with his mother Judy after he won the boys’ title at Flushing Meadows
‘My Scottish football team would be Arbroath,’ says Roberston of his interests outside tennis. ‘But they are in a quite bad division (Scottish League One) and my English team is United, obviously they’re doing terrible so I’m thinking about changing.
‘As I got better, the National Tennis Centre is in Stirling and we moved up there for my tennis,’ he said. ‘My dad’s a farmer and he had to sell his farm for us to move up. He’s working for one of his friends now. I think they do crops and veg, strawberries, a little bit of everything.’
Strawberries, you say? Robertson’s story is almost too perfect to be true.
