Andy Murray has reiterated that he would never play on a Saudi-run tennis tour, like golf’s controversial defectors to the LIV golf series.
Golf has been rocked in recent months by the £2 billion launch of the breakaway series and last week Telegraph Sport revealed that Saudi Arabia is also trying to entice a women’s tour event to their country.
There have been previous examples of exhibition tennis events planned in the gulf state. Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal had been due to play a showdown in Jeddah in 2018, before it was called off due to their respective injuries. But two-time Wimbledon champion Murray rejected a £1.5million offer to play exhibition matches in Saudi Arabia over concerns about human rights. When asked if he would ever follow in these golfer’s footsteps, and accept a “sack full of cash” to play on a different tour, he was unequivocally against the idea. “They did, they put on an event in Saudi Arabia a few years ago, and I was offered to play there,” he said. “I know a number of the other guys on the tour were offered to play there. I don’t think the player field that went was what they were hoping. A lot of the, I would say, top players and bigger names turned it down. And I personally wouldn’t go and play there.”
Murray’s comments came on the eve of Wimbledon, where he is hoping to make an impact after a number of years thwarted by injury.
He appears to have recovered from the abdominal problem that hampered his preparations over the past two weeks, and will open his campaign on Centre Court on Monday against Australia’s James Duckworth.
His coach and eight-time major champion Ivan Lendl has been by his side during training sessions at the All England Club this past week.
Lendl was part of Murray’s team during his most successful period, including all three of his major victories. They linked back up in March in a last ditch effort to reinvigorate Murray’s career which was blighted by a hip injury that kept him sidelined for long periods between 2017 and 2020 and forced him to undergo resurfacing surgery.
Lendl’s enduring belief in Murray has been a boost to his game he said, seeing him beat world No 6 Stefanos Tsitsipas and reach the final in Stuttgart earlier this month. “I showed a couple weeks ago that there was still good tennis left in me,” he said. “I know the tennis is in there; I just need to bring it out during the event now. Having Ivan on my team helps. We’ve had a lot of success in the past. We know each other well. He still believes in me. There’s not loads of coaches, people out there that have done over this last period, and he has. That definitely helps me.”
During those years in the tennis wilderness, Murray revealed a number of coaches rejected offers to work with him - a sore point he uses as motivation. “It hasn’t hurt me. In many ways it’s been a motivation. (BBC Sport)