Advertisement

'F***ing joke': Andy Murray's foul-mouthed tirade at own team

Andy Murray cut a frustrated figure on Tuesday as he suffered a second-straight defeat in his return to singles tennis.

Murray fell in the first round of the ATP Winston-Salem Open, where the three-time grand slam champion was giving his surgically repaired hip just its second test in singles.

Murray, who feared in January that his hip trouble would end his career, accepted a wild card into this week's tournament in North Carolina after falling in his singles comeback in Cincinnati last week.

He again showed glimpses of his once-dominant self, but was inconsistent in a 7-6 (10-8), 7-5 loss to 73rd-ranked American Tennys Sandgren in a match lasting 2 hours and 10 minutes.

Andy Murray, pictured here in his return to singles tennis. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
Andy Murray cut a frustrated figure. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)

The 32-year-old let his frustrations boil over after blowing a set point in the first-set tiebreaker, launching a foul-mouthed rant at his own entourage.

“F***ing no one in this team ever wants to say anything when there’s something wrong, never,” he could be heard saying.

“Everything is perfect all the f***ing time. Kills me. F***ing joke.”

One person who will be particularly unimpressed is Murray’s grandmother.

“I still get in trouble for it today, behaving badly on a tennis court. I've just never been able not to behave well,” he said on Friday.

“I just remember when I was playing a tournament when I was 14 in the Czech Republic and my mum and my gran came over to watch and my gran didn't speak to me for about three months!

“I remember it really well because I love my gran, she's the best, and when she didn't speak to me I was gutted about that.

“I think she knows I'm probably not going to change now. But yeah, that was tough.”

Murray considers dropping to Challenger level

Murray sees his game improving yet acknowledges he might benefit from dropping down a level before attacking the ATP Tour again.

"Some things were a bit better [against Sandgren], I think," he said. "I was hitting the ball a bit cleaner than I did maybe in Cincinnati.

"I feel like I moved fairly well to some drop shots, which maybe last week I wasn't running to. So there's some good things in there but also some stuff I would like to do better.

"I'm physically okay considering, no pain, no discomfort. Just a little bit more tired than usual.

"I'm quite aware of sort of where I'm at just now and what my level is. It's competitive at this level but it needs to be better.

"Maybe I need to play a level down to get some matches and build my game up a little bit before I start playing on the Tour again."

Murray will not play singles or doubles at the US Open, although he was keen to enter qualifying at the year's final grand slam.

with agencies