Tweet-free Andy beats troll abuse
ANDY MURRAY has revealed that he removes Twitter from his phone during Grand Slams to avoid the kind of trolling routinely suffered by tennis players.
The 29-year- old Scot, who today plays his Wimbledon third round match against Australian John Millman, does not want to suffer the sort of abuse to which Heather Watson referred after her first-round defeat on Thursday.
‘I delete Twitter from my phone normally over the big competitions,’ said Murray. ‘If there is something I want to read about on Twitter then I just Google it, so I don’t read anything about myself because you think “what’s the point really?”
‘It is tempting because that is the kind of world we live in now. Social media — everyone is on it — it is huge. But there is a time and a place for it. When you have lost a difficult match it is best to stay away.
‘I don’t read notifications any time I am around major tournaments. I have been on Twitter only once in the last three months, and I think that was after Marcus Willis’s match. Because it was just such a great story and amazing to see that.
‘There are a lot of people who give you support but Twitter is not always the most pleasant place to hang out. After a tough loss like that or a disappointing defeat, it is being around the people you like, your family — they are the ones who are hurting with you and who really care about the result and make you feel better.’
All sports people will identify with the concerns of Murray and Watson, although tennis players are a particular target due to the sport’s inter-national appeal and the gambling it stimulates.
Today’s match ought not to result in too much trolling, and world No 2 Murray’s main concern might be that he is in some way delayed as the match has been chosen as his annual visit to the unprotected Court One.
Murray has played Millman only once before, in the latter’s hometown Brisbane Open — the first tournament of the season — with the Australian in inspired form before his own people.
He took the Scot to three close sets there but now the boot is on the other foot, with Wimbledon the nearest thing Surrey-based Murray has to a local event.
Liverpool supporter Millman is, like an increasing number of male players, only hitting his peak in his mid-twenties and he is currently ranked 67.
His development has been arrested by a career-threatening shoulder injury suffered in 2013, which actually saw him take a ‘proper’ job for a while in the finance industry in Brisbane.
‘I worked in the city for a little bit at one of my mate’s companies,’ he said. ‘I was dressed up in a suit each day going in. ’
Millman (below) played Roger Federer at the Australian Open in January, so is not a total stranger to the big occasion, and defeated 26th seed Benoit Paire in the second round, so will not be a pushover.
‘I respect Andy a lot,’ he said. ‘He’s such a great player, especially over five sets. I think it’s a whole different ball game against him. But we start off at love-all.
‘I’ve never been one to necessarily go out with an intimidated mindset before I play. I think that that’s kind of being disrespectful to the game. So I’m going to give it everything.
‘I have been a Liverpool fan since I was really young. I think on my dad’s side of the family — they’re all (Manchester) United supporters, and the team they hate the most is Liverpool. So being an annoying little six-year-old, you probably go for the team they hate the most.
‘Since then football is probably growing in Australia, and the amount of travel that I have done since I finished school, you see just how big the game is. I’m a very passionate Liverpool supporter — and I love Jurgen Klopp.’
Aside from winning, Murray will want to be detained as little as possible for the rigours of the second week, with the possibility of a fourth-round match on Monday against a more controversial, higher ranked Australian in Nick
Kyrgios.