JUDY MURRAY has called on Scotland's rural areas to be next in line to get indoor tennis court facilities.

The 57-year-old - who has just been awarded the OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List - believes the Borders, Dumfries and Galloway and the Highland regions should be at the front of the queue to benefit from a £15 million investment into facilities for the game.

She had been asked at the Borders Book Festival in Melrose, what could be done to encourage players and coaches to persevere with the game in areas like the Borders which have no indoor courts.

Mrs Murray explained that Tennis Scotland had a £15 million "pot" to invest in indoor facilities in the hope that more players like her world champion sons Andy and Jamie could be produced.

She said: "Indoor facilities are very important.

"It takes a long time, maybe five or 10 years but I believe the Borders, the Highlands and the South West should be the first three places to get them."

She recalled how when she was coaching they had to hire out small school gymnasiums to coach her players saying: "Sometimes you have to make the best you have."

Mrs Murray added: "My advice would be to get the application into Tennis Scotland for some of that money now."

She has just released her book, Knowing the Score: My Family and Our Tennis Story, which tells of her struggles with the authorities and finance "and being a woman in a man's world" before her sons reached the top of their sport.