Andy Murray reveals why he invited Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to SW19

Andy Murray revealed he invited Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to Wimbledon yesterday as she said watching his 2016 title win had given her ‘joy’ in prison.

After yesterday’s match, the 36-year-old said he asked her to watch his first-round match against Ryan Peniston, whom he beat in straight sets, because he wanted to “invite her to come along and to the tennis to watch in a totally different game’. circumstances’.

The mother of a Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 45, who was wrongfully imprisoned for six years in Tehran’s Evin Prison, sat behind the Princess of Wales and Roger Federer in Center Court’s Royal Box on Tuesday.

Murray said, “I’m glad she was able to make it.”

The British-Iranian national, who was released in March 2022, had previously spoken to the tennis champion while guest editing an episode of BBC Radio 4’s Today Show.

During their conversation, Zaghari-Ratcliffe revealed that the tennis player’s Wimbledon win in 2016 helped her bond with other inmates.

Two months after her sentence in July 2016, Zaghari-Ratcliffe says guards gave her access to two TV channels — one that happened to be showing his matches.

In last year’s interview, she also told the tennis star that she “sometimes misses” the prison environment and the friends she made during the six years she was imprisoned in Iran.

In good company: Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 45, sat behind the Princess of Wales and Roger Federer on Center Court

Deep in Conversation: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and the Princess of Wales talk as they wait for Murray to play

Zaghari-Ratcliffe – who worked as a project manager for the Thomson Reuters Foundation – also said she made friends with inmates while cooking and doing crafts.

“When I came out, there were times when I felt like I really missed my friends and prison,” she explains.

“It’s a very strange thing to say. I don’t know if people can really say you miss prison, but I sometimes think I miss the environment and my friendships in prison.’

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was then two months into her sentence and had been placed in solitary confinement after being charged with conspiracy to overthrow the Iranian government.

In 2022: Andy Murray during his BBC Radio 4 interview with Zaghari-Ratcliffe. The tennis champion called her an ‘inspiration’

With no access to newspapers or books, Zaghari-Ratcliffe explained how she had a choice between one channel exclusively broadcasting Iranian soap operas or another showing Wimbledon matches.

From her cell in Evin, Zaghari-Ratcliffe watched Murray claim the Wimbledon title for the second time – three years after his first win – against Milos Raonic.

“I was always a big fan of yours, but there too I was in solitary confinement watching the game you ended up winning,”

Nazanin told Andy, “I can’t tell you how happy it was and I was ecstatic to see you win.”