Andy Murray labelled fellow British tennis player Liam Broady ‘a clown’ during a heated exchange between the two on social media. The pair argued over Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva, who produced a remarkable final-set fightback to beat Dianne Parry and book her place in the fourth round of the Australian Open.
Andreeva, 16, trailed her French opponent 5-1 in the third set before storming back to 6-6, and duly prevailed in the tie-break to take a 1-6 6-1 7-6 victory. That prompted Murray to take aim at the the commentary team covering her match, posting on X to criticise a comment on her mental strength.
“Andreeva down 5-1 in third,” he wrote. “Commentator ‘she really needs to work on mental side of her game.. she’s too hard on herself when she’s losing’. 30 minutes later 7-6 Andreeva wins.
“Maybe the reason she turned the match round is because of her mental strength. Maybe she turned the match around because she is hard on herself and demands more of herself when she’s losing/playing badly? Winner.”
That prompted a reply from Broady, who did not qualify for the men’s tournament at Melbourne Park. “Mental strength is the wrong phrase,” he said. “To come from 5-1 down in the third in a slam at her age is great mental strength. But perhaps if she had greater mental composure she wouldn’t have gone 5-1 down in the third in the first place?”
Murray, 36, who saw his own campaign Down Under ended at the first hurdle by Argentinian Tomas Martin Etcheverry, fired back with interest. “I don’t understand your tweet,” replied the Scot.
“You said mental strength is the wrong phrase and then in the next sentence say coming from 5-1 down is great mental strength. Liam Broady the walking contradiction.”
And to compound his message, Murray signed off with a clown emoji. Broady didn’t directly reply to the three-time Grand Slam winner, but continued to argue his point with fans on social media.
Andreeva’s run has been one of the stories of the tournament. She followed her first round win over Bernarda Parr with a shock hammering of sixth seed Ons Jabeur, and now faces ninth seed Barbora Krejcikova, of the Czech Republic, for a place in the quarter-finals.
