Murray's mum lives every point

Shirley Tart watches an anxious mother and a gathering of royals and former tennis champions cheer Andy Murray one step further on at Wimbledon.

"Ooh!", said everyone, "Look at the Duchess of Cambridge, she's really going through it with Andy, on the edge of her seat throughout."

In the nicest possible way, never mind the lovely Catherine. What about his mother?

Known throughout his career for egging him on from the stands, Judy Murray has more invested in her lad than an average mum maybe.

She trained him, played herself at a top level and now looks after our leading women players as Federation Cup captain. Put bluntly, she's a good old pro then!

But yesterday, Judy was just the anxious mother of our Number 1 player.

Variously strained, pale and tense as a new elastic band, she went through every shot with him, sometimes mouthing stern advice, as he lost the first set, clawed his way to take the second and survived a battering from Spain's David Ferrer to finally claim his place in the semi-final tomorrow.

By which time, Judy was like a kid who had overdosed on E numbers.

She knows how big yesterday's showdown was and what it meant to her son and to be fair, to her. In a family which lives and breathes tennis, when the top man heads towards this sort of victory, it gets to them all.

And now, Andy is just a match away from a Wimbledon final and without any doubt, has his best possible chance of a finals spot and maybe even the unthinkable . . . . the winner's trophy.

I saw him play for the first time at Wimbledon seven years ago – just days before he'd been swinging his racquet at the then Welti Centre in Shrewsbury. He was good then but let's just say he's come on a bit since!

Yesterday, not only was he watched by his mother but the Royal Box hosted the most popular young royals, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and a whole swathe of former tennis champions led by legend of all our sporting lifetimes, the wonderful Rod Laver as well as Andre Agassi and wife Steffi Graf.

If Andy Murray does power, grapple, battle his way through to reign triumphant tomorrow, Sunday is going to be one fantastic day down Wimbledon way.

Let's just hope that Judy can survive it without the smelling salts!