Joy and despair at the same time in our house this week.

Andy Murray has announced plans to retire from professional tennis, bringing to a close the glorious period we have enjoyed where a British winner of grand slams was more than a slim possibility.

It also brings to a close the two weeks of car journeys during Wimbledon where I would constantly turn the radio to Five Live and the television basically just has tennis on wall-to-wall.

So there was joy from my 12-year-old, who in the year Murray ended 77 years’ wait, actively hoped he would lose when Verdasco took him to a nail-biting fifth set in the quarters.

In fact, she has hoped for an early exit for him every year since she was old enough to realise I wasn’t handing over the remote control any time soon during grand slam weeks.

It got worse for her when I discovered I could watch the French and Australian tournaments on channels I didn’t have to pay extra for.

But the quite frankly premature end to Andy’s stellar career has seen her having the last laugh.

I will still watch the tournaments but maybe not to the exclusion of other activities.

It will definitely take the shine, for a while, off tennis viewing but there is hope, and despair for my daughter, on the horizon, since Kyle Edmund is among a raft of up and coming young stars doing quite well in their own right.

I know Murray divides many in opinion, even having revealed a kind and vulnerable side to his nature in future years.

His genuine emotion at having got to a Wimbledon final for the first time only to fall at the final hurdle in 2012, and again at having to face the possibly imminent end to his playing days, have gone a long way to show he is a decent sort of person.

He also does a huge amount for young hopefuls and has on numerous occasions stood up for the causes he believes in.

No-one on the tour appears to have a bad word to say about him - even those he has vocally called out when playing.

But it is the female players who, tellingly, speak so highly of him and his support of them.

He was the first, and I believe so far the only but I am happy to be corrected, top flight player to have employed a female coach which ruffled a few feathers but received a trademark shrug from Murray.

As far as he was concerned he just wanted to work with the best coaches. End of.

And on more than one occasion he promptly shot down sports journalists who seemingly failed to take into consideration the successes of female players on the tour.

I shall imagine, in his own time, Murray will be as proud of his contribution to shutting down casual sexism as he will his trophies.

And while many have scoffed he has no personality, I beg to differ.

He just isn’t overt about it.

Over the years he has consistently been able to laugh at himself, appearing on Mock the Week days after losing his first Wimbledon final and joining in as the panel mercilessly ribbed him, poking fun at himself whilst receiving his record third Sports Personality Award and apologising for his voice lacking emotion.

So, I am not ashamed to admit I will miss watching him play if this is indeed the end of his competitive career.

And yes, I will miss his personality as much as his tennis.