{"id":236389,"date":"2025-07-04T03:27:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T03:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/236389\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T03:27:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T03:27:12","slug":"tennis-star-reveals-he-was-given-heartbreaking-news-of-family-death-just-moments-after","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/236389\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis star reveals he was given heartbreaking news of family death just moments after…"},"content":{"rendered":"

3 July 2025, 22:41 | Updated: 4 July 2025, 00:21<\/p>\n

\"HSBC<\/p>\n

Tennis player Neal Skupski was told his grandmother had died just moments after winning his opening-round doubles win at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

Picture:
\nGetty
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Neal Skupski has revealed he was told his grandmother had died just moments after coming off court following his opening-round doubles win at Wimbledon. \t<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old Liverpudlian, who is a devoted Liverpool fan, had already been left shaken by the death of forward Diogo Jota in a car crash in Spain earlier on Thursday. \t<\/p>\n

Skupski and partner Joe Salisbury had just battled past fellow Britons Jacob Fearnley and Charles Broom 6-3 3-6 6-3 when he was informed of his grandmother’s death. \t<\/p>\n

“I found out this morning that Jota had passed away, and then I just found out my nan has just passed today as well,” he said. \t<\/p>\n

“So yeah, it’s been a very tough day. \t<\/p>\n

“She was 98 – she was a fighter, she’d been a little bit ill for a while. \t<\/p>\n

“We’ve known it was a matter of time for a few days now, but it was a bit tough to take once I found out when I came off court.” \t<\/p>\n

\"2025<\/p>\n

2025 French Open – Day Fourteen.<\/p>\n

Picture:
\nGetty
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Skupski described his grandmother Mary as the grandparent he was closest to growing up and said: “She would’ve wanted me to be here and she’d be proud of me for what happened today, fighting through. \t<\/p>\n

“It was just a bit tough to take when I found out when we got off court.” \t<\/p>\n

He had earlier spoken about how difficult it was to concentrate after reading about Jota’s death on social media. <\/p>\n

Read more: <\/strong>Jack Draper’s Wimbledon dream ends in defeat to Marin Cilic<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n

Read more: <\/strong>Major motorway closed in both directions and ‘unsafe to use’ after power failure<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

He said: “You never think your heroes or sportsmen you look up to – you think they’re invincible, but it just shows that everyone’s human. \t<\/p>\n

“It’s really tough to take.” \t<\/p>\n

Jota, 28, and his brother Andre Silva were killed in a car crash while driving to catch a ferry to England. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Breaking news: Diogo Jota dies in car crash aged 28<\/p>\n

Skupski, who met the striker during a visit to Liverpool FC’s training base, described him as “not just an amazing footballer, but an incredible person – so down to earth – someone who kept the dressing room running smoothly”. \t<\/p>\n

Skupski said he had considered wearing a black armband during the match but chose not to. “Maybe in the next couple of days,” he added. \t<\/p>\n

Salisbury paid tribute to his teammate, saying: “Neil’s done a great job – most people wouldn’t really know. \t<\/p>\n

“Once you step on court, you try and focus, but this really puts things in perspective.” \t<\/p>\n

Skupski said that playing helped him cope, adding: “Walking on to the tennis court is only going to help me – there’s more to life than missing tennis shots.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"3 July 2025, 22:41 | Updated: 4 July 2025, 00:21 Tennis player Neal Skupski was told his grandmother…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[79,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-236389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114792840992253537","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}