It’s been a decade since tennis player Andy Murray won his first Wimbledon title – and while he says he hasn’t changed much, he has “learned to be more patient”.

His personal life has certainly shifted over the past 10 years too – now 36, Murray is married to wife Kim and they have four children, ranging in age from two to seven.

“I do think I’ve learned to be more patient since the children – that’s always very challenging, having a lot of little ones running around,” the current British number four admits.

A decade ago, he suggests he was “more selfish – so hopefully that’s changed a bit too. I do think you have to be a bit that way when you’re in an individual sport,” he adds.

Another skill he’s picked up over the past decade?

“I’ve improved listening – when I was younger, probably because I was quite selfish, I would always want to tell everyone how I was feeling all of the time. You think what you are going through is always the most important thing.

“Probably as I’ve got older and with kids or with my wife and my family, I do certainly try to listen better to their issues and their concerns,” he reflects.

It’s something he’s learned from sports psychologists over the years.

“Something I’ve realised, when I’m venting or talking to a sports psychologist, they’re taking in and listening and respecting everything that I’m saying and feeling, then trying to work through it,” Murray notes.

“Whereas I think sometimes when people come to you and they start expressing their feelings, it’s quite easy to get into a battle with them. Sometimes it’s better to allow someone to vent and get all of their frustration out, before then continuing the conversation in a calmer way.”

While he might have grown calmer off court, this hasn’t necessarily translated to his game, however.

“I’m still quite impatient when it comes to my tennis, unfortunately,” Murray says with a wry smile – but he is getting better at being kinder to himself, he adds.

Sports psychologists would tell him to ask myself: “If your kids were in this situation, what would you tell them? You tend to be more understanding with your children, rather than how you talk to yourself,” he says.

As someone who admits to being his own “worst critic” and “very hard on myself”, Murray says this advice has “definitely helped” him.

Looking back at his first Wimbledon win in 2013, the American Express ambassador remembers a sense of “relief” as being his overwhelming emotion.

“Usually with the adrenaline and everything after a match, you’re buzzing and it’s difficult to sleep. But I was like [to wife Kim], ‘I want to lie down, I feel so tired’. I was completely drained after the match, and it was obviously an incredible moment. But I was clearly feeling that moment, feeling the pressure and stress of it – it took a while to sink in properly and to feel any kind of euphoria.”

It was a momentous occasion – Murray became the first British man since Fred Perry to win the men’s singles title 77 years previously – and he says “the size of the story” made it feel “surreal”.

He continues: “It wasn’t until I went away on holiday with my wife straight afterwards and it was just the two of us, when I was actually able to enjoy it and think about what had gone into achieving that.”

Family is the main constant in Murray’s life, and he frequently mentions his loved ones – even interrupting himself mid-sentence to exclaim: “I feel like I’ve just seen my mum out the window!” (It wasn’t her).

That’s what makes Wimbledon so special, he says: “It’s a chance to play in front of your friends and family.

“Tennis – we do so much travelling over the years, we’re away from our families a lot, and it’s not easy for them to come and watch us loads.”

He calls his mother Judy and wife Kim “two of the best supporters I’ve had throughout my career”, adding: “Even still today, it would be quite easy for my wife to turn around and say, ‘You know, enough now – we’ve got four children, and the results haven’t been as they were eight, nine years ago’. But she’s always encouraging me to keep going and been a huge support for me.”

When asked about his favourite off-court memory at Wimbledon, one incident immediately springs to mind.

“The story in the press was that I saved a dog, but there was a dog running in the middle of the road when I was on my way to play my match and so I stopped and I went out and I got the dog – it was a busy road and stuff, and put the dog in my car and drove the dog back home to my house.”

Sounds remarkably like he did save a dog?

“I don’t know,” Murray replies somewhat bashfully.

Murray doesn’t want to talk about exact retirement plans, but how he’d like to bow out is something he admits he’s “thought about”. Instead, he’s keen to focus on what’s immediately ahead. After a string of wins, disappointment in the first round of the cinch Championships means he will not be seeded at Wimbledon.

If he does make it to Wimbledon this year, you can be sure Murray will still feel the nerves – even after all these years.

“When you’re getting towards the end of your career, you have the experience of having played at Wimbledon lots of times, but you also know you don’t have that many more opportunities to do it, which makes you want to put in a good performance.

“Whereas when you’re 21, you’ve probably got another 10, 12 attempts at it. I know that I’ve only got a few left, so I want to make the most of it.”

Murray returns as an American Express ambassador this summer to help tennis fans make unforgettable memories at the Amex Fan Experience onsite at The Championships, Wimbledon. To find out more, visit wimbledon.com/americanexpress