ANDY: DON’T DO ME FAVOURS
ANDY MURRAY has insisted he wants no “sympathy” from his fellow pros as he bids to return to the top of tennis.
And the three-time Grand Slam winner also admitted he has no “empathy” with Roger Federer as he makes his own comeback from injury next week.
World No.123 Murray
(right) smashed his racquet on the court in frustration as he lost 7-5 6-2 to world No.8 Andrey Rublev in the second round of the AMRO World Tennis Tournament in
Rotterdam. The Scot then admitted he had “messed up” with errors at the end of a tight first set.
The former world No.1, who won his first ATP Tour-level match for six months in the first round, now plans to play events in Dubai and Miami this month. World No.5 Federer, who underwent two knee operations last year, is to play his first event since last year’s Australian Open in Qatar next week before playing in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Asked if he had “sympathy” for Federer, the Scot said: “I don’t know, obviously he has gone through a difficult time and I don’t want anyone to go through those sort of issues.
“I don’t want sympathy. I don’t want any of that from the other players. I want to get out and compete and enjoy doing what I am doing. I’d imagine Roger would be the same.
“He doesn’t need my sympathy and he doesn’t need any advice from me.”
WAYNE ROONEY has called for football to adopt a unified anti-racism message in the wake of “cowardly” abuse of Colin Kazim-richards.
London-born Kazimrichards, who has 37 caps for Turkey, got vile social media abuse after scoring Derby’s equaliser against local rivals Nottingham Forest last week.
It forced the striker to have to explain to his young children why racism and discrimination still exists.
Rams boss Rooney (inset) wants social media companies to do more to punish offenders and remove anonymity from accounts. But he also believes the football authorities, in conjunction with clubs, should work together to come up with a new unified approach.
Many clubs have embraced Black Lives Matter but some teams and individuals, including Kazim-richards and team-mate Andre Wisdom, are now standing instead of taking the knee before kick-off.
Rooney said: “There are people who are sat at home on their phone or their computer and are cowards. They would never do it face to face. “The quicker something can get sorted out to bring the identity of these individuals out, the better. It is not fair for Colin to sit at home and have to explain to his children. We have to support him and not just Colin but the rest of the players as well.
“No one wants to see racism in football or any walk of life, we back that.”