Just weeks after Andy and his beautiful wife Kim welcomed their precious little girl into the world, the 28-year-old spoke to The Guardian about how Sophia Olivia has impacted his life.
Andy is quickly discovering that when it comes to parenthood, there is a very steep and quick learning curve, as he admitted that he finds the task of changing Sophia’s nappies to be the most daunting. Not because of the smell – we might add, but rather because he’s worried about the fragility of newborns.
“You see a small person and you think they’re so fragile, or that their hands are so small that when you’re putting their fingers through their top they could maybe break,” said Andy.
“But when you see all the midwives – and Kim has a good friend who is a midwife – they’re a lot rougher and they do things much more quickly. Lots of people have told me babies are a lot more resilient than you think. They’re not going to break.”
“I want my daughter to be proud of her dad when she grows up and sees what I did.”
Andy and Kim welcomed the little bundle of joy on February 7th, just days after the Australian Open in Melbourne concluded. After some well-deserved time off, the father-of-one is now starting to hit the courts once more, but he admits that he finds the long hours away from home to be a challenge.
“Even when I’m away for a day I feel bad,” said Andy.
“I feel I should be there and I want to be there as much as I can. So when I’m leaving the house at eight in the morning and getting back at eight at night, I feel bad.”
But of course, the tennis pro finds as much time as possible to spend with daughter.
“Waking up is a lot easier now. I used to love sleeping in later but getting up early and getting to see her in the morning is great.” He told BBC Radio 2.
The athlete confides to the paper that missing even a minute of the growth of his little one is a thing that concerns him.
“The thing that has surprised me most is how quickly everything changes – from the first day she was born. You don’t notice it when you’re there every day but you look back at a photo on the day she was born to one taken five days later to now, a few weeks on, and you see how much things change on a daily basis.” He said to The Guardian before adding,
“I really don’t want to miss seeing those changes,”
The happy couple tied the knot on the 11th of April last year at Dunblane Cathedral in Scotland.
The new parents said ‘I do’ last April, and since then, Andy credits his success on the court to his happily married life.
As for whether the motivation of his daughter will carry the same positive effect, Andy said: “[Fatherhood] is a positive thing – and tennis not being your priority can help. It lends perspective when you have a bad loss or bad practice.
“The outcome of a match is not everything but I want my daughter to be proud of her dad when she grows up and sees what I did.”
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