Tennis star Andy Murray said he will travel to Ghent, Belgium, next week for the Davis Cup final despite the heightened security risks due to the Paris terrorist attacks.
“I don’t want to live my life in fear each time I step onto a tennis court,” he declared.
Murray survived the mass shooting at Dunblane Primary School in Dunblane, Scotland, in 1996. The eight-year-old Murray hid while a madman murdered 16 of his schoolmates and one teacher before turning the gun on himself.
Ghent sits only three-hours away from Paris, where terrorists slaughtered 130 people last Friday in six separate attacks.
“Everybody right now is concerned about things,” Murray told the press. “But I do think the best thing that we can do is to live our normal lives, not change too much, because then the terrorists are the ones that are winning. We need to go out there and do what we always do and try not to change too much. That’s all we can do.”
Great Britain will play in their first Davis Cup final since 1978.
Authorities in Belgium arrested people in connection with the terrorist attack. Several of those arrests occurred in Molenbeek, “just 35 miles from the Flanders Expo Arena where the match will be played.” The International Tennis Federation also announced more security at the venue, but Murray hopes both teams do not “give in to fear.”
“I think everybody right now is concerned about things,” he continued. “All of sport really has shown that it’s a terrible, terrible tragedy. But I do think the best thing that we can do is to live our normal lives, not change too much, because then the terrorists are the ones that are winning.”
The world’s number two tennis player made the remarks after he defeated David Ferrer at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, 6-4, 6-4, in only 90 minutes.