'Giving it laldy' - What makes Andy Murray tick according to Open champion Paul Lawrie

Paul Lawrie has hailed Andy Murray as “Scotland’s best-ever sportsman” and says he will always cherish getting a “little glimpse of who he is” as a one-off captain in a team tennis event.

Three-time grand slam winner and Olympic gold medallist Murray has announced that he will be retiring following a farewell appearance in the upcoming Paris Olympics.

The news broke as Lawrie arrived at Carnoustie to play in the pro-am for this week’s Senior Open presented by Rolex and the 1999 Open champion and two-time Ryder Cup player paid his compatriot the ultimate tribute.

With team captain Paul Lawrie in the background, Andy Murray takes a break between games during day the Battle of the Brits at P&J Live Arena in Aberdeen in 2022. Mark Runnacles/Getty Images for Battle of the Brits.

“For me, he is Scotland’s best-ever sportsman,” said Lawrie. “I’m sure people will have a different opinion to that but, right now and it’s all about opinions, I don’t see anybody that has done more than he has done.

“To keep playing the length of time he has done with the operations he has had, that programme he made, Resurfacing, the stuff he has gone through to keep playing at that level.”

Lawrie, who is bidding to complete a dream double at Carnoustie by adding the senior Claret Jug to the main one, added: “I got a little glimpse of who he is and what he is when they had the Battle of Brits in Aberdeen (in 2022). I was the captain, which I thought was a bit silly.

“I said I don’t know anything about tennis, but Jamie (Andy’s brother) when he asked me to do it said ‘it’s just something different’. Ian Holloway (the former Queens Park Rangers football manager) was the English captain and I was the Scottish captain.

“But Andy Murray? When he comes back after every point, honestly what a winner. When he lost a game or whatever he was coming back and just raging.

“It was funny and I am not going to swear, but the first game I did with him on his own I was just sitting on the bit (next to Murray’s chair) and it was the first few games and he was playing against somebody and he came back.

“I am sitting there as a golfer saying do I speak to him or do I not. Do I say something? He is quite a motivated kind of guy and I am not like that. I am not a ra-ra type of boy, I am not a fist pumper.

“He was down and the sweat is dripping off him so I whispered to him and said ‘what do you want me to say?’ He went ‘f*** all’. That was his reply. That’s what he wanted me to say. But what do you say? He didn’t need me to say come on Andy you can get back into this.

“And I thoroughly enjoyed it. He had the full team up. He had physios, dieticians. Five or six people with him. A full 40 minutes warm up. No other player did that. They were all sitting around having a coffee. He is in there giving it laldy for something that doesn’t really matter.

“I thought wow. This guy is amazing. I just got so much out of it. I admired him before but when I spent that few days with him I thought ‘wow, the way he goes about it’.

“I mean it sounds stupid now, but when I used to get ready before the first event off the season I would go to Dubai two days early. This guy is eight weeks in Miami. I’m going on the Saturday instead of the Monday.

“The professionalism from him is unbelievable. It’s sad to see him stop, but I think it’s the right time for him. He has given it everything he’s got and there is nothing left in his body. He can’t compete at the top and it will be interesting to see what he does now.

“Hopefully he will use what he is and who he is to the better of getting young tennis players in and about. I’m sure he will.”

Murray confirmed he will retire after the Olympics, saying Paris 2024 will be his “last ever tennis tournament”. It had been widely expected that the 37-year-old Scot would call time on his career after the Games as he looked to go out at the top.

Murray was recently robbed of a Wimbledon farewell in the singles after he had surgery on a spinal cyst just a week before the tournament began.

The three-time grand slam champion, who is the only man to have won two Olympic tennis singles gold medals, said on Instagram: “Arrived in Paris for my last ever tennis tournament @Olympics.

"Competing for (Team GB) have been by far the most memorable weeks of my career and I’m extremely proud to get do it one final time!”

Tributes for Murray have poured in following the announcement with Paula Radcliffe saying calling time on his stellar career at the Olympics is “extremely fitting”. Radcliffe told Sky Sports News: “Watching over the years, I think he leaves a huge legacy behind. Andy has really epitomised it more than most, he really loves what he is doing and has pushed the boundaries of his physical limits as far as he could.

“He has earned the right to finish his competitive career where he wants to do that and it is extremely fitting that he does so at the Olympics because those Olympics in 2012 really were a huge, huge turning point for him. He is one of those tennis players who has backed the Olympics the whole way.”

Olympic great Matthew Pinsent wrote on X: “Still love those that used to say he would never cut it at top level. all of that plus a stellar Team GB career. Chapeau.”

Scottish First Minister John Swinney posted on X: “Our greatest ever sportsman. Heartfelt thanks to @andy_murray for an outstanding and inspiring career which has made a profound impact on so many.”