TV STAR MURRAY IS REAL STATTO
ANDY MURRAY gave a glimpse of life after tennis, earning plaudits and the nickname ‘Statto’ on his commentary debut for the BBC. The Scot demonstrated his knowledge of the game and his rivals in the quarter-final between Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro. He also admitted he has ‘strange’ superstitions, ‘hating’ the on-court cameras spying on the notes in his bag. Early in the game, Murray (below) reeled off a statistic about Nadal’s percentage of points won on his second serve. He followed it up with an in-depth comment about how six of this year’s quarterfinalists are in the top 11 of all time for second-serve points won on grass. It prompted commentator Andrew Cotter to remark: ‘You are a bit of a Statto.’ Murray gave an insight into aspects of his game he struggles with, including his ‘below average’ record with HawkEye, because he often does ‘emotional challenges’ and coping with the mental stress of having to resume a match the next day after a rain delay. He revealed his frustration when he feels cameras are trying to look inside his bag. He joked his notes could be ‘Tim Henman is a terrible commentator’ and snuck in a reference to the World Cup when adding that another could be: ‘Coming Home’.