Like any new parent, experiencing those "firsts" with your child can be a daunting experience. Speaking to The Guardian a couple of weeks after welcoming his daughter Sophia, Andy Murray has opened up about how he's embracing fatherhood.
The 28-year-old admitted that the most difficult task he found was changing his baby's nappies – although he was much better at holding Sophia than his nervous brother Jamie.
"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.
© Photo: Getty ImagesAndy Murray and his wife Kim became parents on 7 February
"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've not held her upside down yet," Andy added, grinning. "But, yeah, after the first couple of days I felt much more confident."
Andy and his wife Kim welcomed their first child on 7 February. The former Wimbledon champion travelled all the way back from Australia so as not to miss the birth. Andy is now back training on the tennis courts, but he's admitted that being away from home hasn't been easy.
© Photo: Getty ImagesAndy admitted that he's feeling "more confident" in his role
"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.
"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."
"I really don't want to miss seeing those changes," he added.
© Photo: Getty ImagesAndy travelled back from Australia to support Kim during the birth
When Andy tied the knot with Kim in April 2015, the tennis pro admitted that his happy personal life had improved his game. On winning the Madrid open final against Rafael Nadal in June, the athlete scrawled "Marriage works" on the lens of a camera that was capturing the match.
As for whether fatherhood will have 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. I hope it works out in a positive way on the court but if it doesn't, it's not the end of the world."
