MANCHESTER (Reuters) – A tearful Andy Murray dedicated his Davis Cup win on Friday to his grandmother after missing her funeral to play in the tie against Switzerland.
Murray battled hard to beat Leandro Riedi 6-7(7) 6-4 6-4 and appeared to be good spirits during his on-court chat with former player Naomi Broady, talking about his reading interests and a fan in Manchester who had shown him a “magic trick”.
“I went to get a coffee the other morning and we were just sitting outside and a guy came up and started telling jokes. He asked if I wanted to see a magic trick and pulled an orange out of his underpants,” Murray said.
“I wasn’t expecting that, it was a first for me. It looked like a decent orange, but I passed. I let him have it.”
Broady then asked Murray if he had a present for a 90-year-old fan named “Grandma Pat” who was watching live tennis for the first time and the Scot joked about giving her his sweaty t-shirts as a gift before he began to choke up.
“Today’s a tough day for me. It’s actually my gran’s funeral today. I’m sorry to my family that I’m not able to be there, but yeah, gran, that one’s for you,” Murray said.
The three-times Grand Slam champion told reporters later that he had talked with his father ahead of the match.
“He said ‘she would want you to play’. He just said ‘make sure you win’ so I did,” Murray said.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
