Abby Brammell

By Alison Boshoff

Match of the day: Andy Murray and Kim Sears are happy in love after rekindling their romance


Talk about good timing. On the eve of Wimbledon, Andy Murray was firmly ensconsed in the arms of his former girlfriend - the one who makes him perform at his best.

The Scot was spotted out walking with Kim Sears near his Surrey home just a few days ago. They looked very much together, as they wandered along with his arm draped round her neck, and appeared very, very relaxed. In fact, the usually po-faced Murray, 23, was positively beaming.

It has been a month since Sears, 22, moved back into his £5million gated community home. Much of that time will have been filled, for him, with thinking about the next fortnight. Kim, on the other hand, is deciding what she wants to do with the rest of her life.

A career in publishing is the favoured option. She had wanted to be an actress, but realised that the spotlight would always fall upon her famous other half.

So how and why did she and Murray re-heat their love match, having split in November after four years together? During their seven months apart, there were several failed attempts to make it work again.

It seems that Murray had initially asked her to move out to give him some 'space'. Reports linking him to Scots beauty queen Katharine Brown are apparently wide of the mark - the pair were at school together and she is simply a family friend.

Simon Olivera, Murray's spokesman, said: 'Andy wasn't involved with anyone else at all. As you know, his life is his tennis and he doesn't have time find someone. Kim is a great girl and they are young kids in love.'


In-love: Andy Murray has laughs and hugs with girlfriend Kim Sears before Wimbledon starts whilst out on a dog walk near his Surrey home


Kim Sears, who returned to live with her parents for a spell and concentrated on passing her final college exams this spring, seems to have just patiently waited for Andy to sort out his priorities.

I'm told they re-entered each others lives slowly, and after long hours spent on the phone. Murray found that he missed her. And for now, at least, the impression given by Murray and Sears is of low-key domestic bliss.

When not on tour, the lovers can be seen pushing a trolley around the local Tesco in Leatherhead. Kim loads up with fruit and vegetables, while Andy piles up packets of his favourite snack, Milky Way Cake bars.


Supporting role: Kim Sears (left) and Judy Murray will be backing Andy at Wimbledon


They like to play Scrabble and Backgammon. Murray, as you might expect, is desperately competitive at both.

Might they marry? 'I don't hear any talk about marriage or anything like that,' a friend said. 'I think he is a bit young still.'

In some ways, then, he is like any other young man, the key difference of course being his £15 million fortune, and a full schedule of training, travelling and playing which means that he spends months of the year on the road.

Luckily for him Kim, clever, shy and tennis-mad, is seen as the perfect match.

She grew up in the village of Barcombe in West Sussex. Her father is Nigel Sears, the head coach of women's tennis in the UK, and the sport dominated her family life.

Even before she became Murray's girlfriend, she had travelled the world to attend Grand Slam events.

Murray wooed her with phone calls and flowers. It took some time for her to decide about this gangly teenager, with a hot temper and huge nest of curly hair. Even then, she was not distracted by the romance, passing all her A-levels with straight As.

She then, quietly and discreetly, joined Team Murray and became her boyfriend's chauffeur. He bought her a £40,000 Mercedes to thank her for patiently ferrying him around. More than that, she tamed her man of his tendency to furies about things as unimportant as a misshapen banana.


Bow? Scot Andy Murray is also debating whether to bow to the Queen during Wimbledon


The source says: 'There is no doubt that Kim has mellowed Andy. She's obviously good for him, and when you see them together there is never any atmosphere between them, they just seem to be a good fit.'

He admits that himself, saying: 'I work better in a relationship.' Interestingly, in the time they were apart he dropped from world number two to world number five.

Interestingly, Kim is not one of the full-time team who travels with Murray to competitions. But he has said: 'When we get together we've always got something to talk about, and the relationship always seems a bit fresher.

'She doesn't want to follow me around on tour. She wants to have her own career, not just pose in Hello! magazine.'

He added: 'I'm lucky. I know Kim isn't with me because I'm in the spotlight. When we met I was playing qualifiers.'

In an interview last year he added that he felt he was naturally a one-woman man. 'It isn't that I have anything against people who want to go drinking and find as many girls as they can.

'I don't disagree with it, but it doesn't interest me that much. I don't know whether that's because I've got an older head on my shoulders or because I'm lucky to have Kim.'


source: dailymail