After winning Wimbledon last summer, there was really only one ‘will he/won’t he’ question Andy Murray had left to answer.

And it was a resounding ‘yes, he will’ as the tennis star finally became engaged to his girlfriend – nine years after they first met.

He proposed to Kim Sears, 26, last week with a diamond ring he chose himself and she immediately said ‘yes’.

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Engaged at last: Tennis star Andy Murray has proposed to Kim Sears, his partner of more than nine years

Look of love: Left, a candid moment between the pair, and right, after winning Olympic gold in 2012

Sources said the couple had hoped to keep their engagement secret for some time and have not yet made plans for their wedding.

Murray, 27, who flew to the Philippines for a tennis tournament yesterday, had not even shared his happy news with some of his closest family members.

The sportsman’s mother Judy said last night that she was ‘thrilled’, but his grandmother said she had heard only ‘rumours’.

Since last year becoming the first British man to win the Wimbledon singles title since 1936, Murray has repeatedly batted off questions about when he would ask Miss Sears to marry him.

But he popped the question last Wednesday, placing a painstakingly selected engagement ring on her finger.

Miss Sears was just 17 and still studying her A-Levels when she met the up-and-coming tennis player at the US Open in 2005.

Murray wooed her with phone calls and flowers. But she did not allow their burgeoning romance to affect her schoolwork, and she achieved straight As in her exams. The couple managed to keep their relationship quiet – until Murray won his first tournament in California in 2006 and ran through the crowd to give his girlfriend a kiss.

They separated briefly in 2009, reportedly because of the sports star’s video games obsession, but rekindled their romance after six months and have stayed together since. She has been credited with improving the tennis player’s scruffy appearance and helping him to control his fiery temper on court.

British tennis player Andy Murray poses with the 2013 Wimbledon trophy along with his fiancee Kim Sears during the Wimbledon Champions Dinner in July 2013, a day after he won the men's singles final match

Victor: Andy Murray of Great Britain climbs into his player's box to celebrate with friends, family and members of his coaching team following his victory in 2013

Kiss for a champion: Kim Sears reacts at the men's final at Wimbledon in July 2013

Murray, who grew up in Dunblane in Scotland, has spoken of the strength he draws from Miss Sears, particularly in the light of his own parents’ separation when he was just 11. ‘I work better in a relationship. At the end of a day, especially if I’ve lost a match, I don’t like talking about tennis, so it’s nice to have someone to talk to about other stuff,’ he said in 2009.

The couple live in a £5.6million house in Oxshott, Surrey, with their two Border terriers, Rusty and Maggie May. There had been a series of rumours that Murray was about to propose to Miss Sears before their engagement was officially confirmed yesterday.

In January he jokingly tweeted: ‘We are getting married just after Wimbledon, should be a great day.’ The message prompted Twitter users to offer their congratulations, until he admitted that it was just ‘tongue-in-cheek’. Murray has already spoken of how he would like to have children with Miss Sears.

Domesticity: The pair pop out to do some shopping in 2010

The tennis star's mother Judy and Sears celebrate his Wimbledon win over Stanislas Wawrinka in June 2009

Murray holds the British flag aloft following his 2012 Olympic triumph over Roger Federer

In his 2013 memoir Seventy-Seven: My Road to Wimbledon Glory, he wrote: ‘I would like to start a family and try to be a good father. That’s important to me. It’s something that I’m starting to think about because Kim and I have been together for eight years.’

Last night Mrs Murray, 55, who was recently voted off Strictly Come Dancing, said simply: ‘I’m thrilled.’

The sports star’s grandmother Shirley Erskine added: ‘I know there have been rumours but that’s as much as we know. It would be nice, without a doubt.’

A spokesman for Murray confirmed that the star had become engaged but declined to give any further details.