Andy Murray wins Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award after donating $630,000 prize money to Ukraine relief

Former world No. 1 Andy Murray was awarded the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award on Thursday for his significant charitable contribution following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Since his participation at Indian Wells in March, Murray has donated over $630,000 he has received in prize money to UNICEF’s humanitarian response to aid the cause, raise awareness, and on a personal level, gain some motivation for the remainder of the season.

Murray, a UNICEF UK Ambassador, joined Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi as he became the fourth player to win the award on multiple occasions, adding to his first prize in 2014.

“It’s an honour to be named recipient again. The reason to do the right thing is not for an accolade like this, but it is nice that it is appreciated somewhere.”

In an essay Murray penned for the ATP Tour, he reflected on a difficult year and went into detail about how, and why, he decided to make the decision to donate all the prize money he received to help children affected by the war.

“In February I was playing the tournament in Dubai and I remember watching the news and there were rumours about something happening between Russia and Ukraine.

“A few days later when Russia invaded Ukraine everyone was very worried about what it would mean. When all the images on the news showing what was happening to families began pouring in, it was devastating. Houses were bombed and families were displaced. Young children were affected by this, with many injured and in some cases dying. I wasn’t sure what I could do to help.

“Shortly after I decided that from Indian Wells onwards, I would donate my prize money for the rest of the season to UNICEF’s humanitarian response – the final total was just over $630,000.”

The 35-year-old explained how the conflict between Russia and Ukraine had affected him on a personal level, and why he felt he had to get involved.

“There are 7.5 million children in Ukraine and after more than nine months of increased conflict, 5.2 million of them are in need of assistance. UNICEF is working around the clock to keep children safe by ensuring child health and protection services are sustained, critical supplies are delivered to families and that children have clean water and nutritious food.

“When you see images of children on the news who were impacted by things like this, that makes it even more difficult to stomach. I have four young children who are really fortunate that everything is fine with them. But being a parent, it affects you differently. You try to put yourself in their shoes. If something like that happened with your own family, how difficult would that be? It is hard to fathom.

“I’m in the fortunate position to try to make some sort of difference, so hopefully the money that’s been raised through UNICEF can help some of the children who have been affected.”

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