Andy Murray labels Saudi Arabia’s influence on sports ‘unfortunate’

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Andy Murray shares his thoughts on the ATP Tour’s talks with Saudi Arabia (Picture: Getty)

British tennis legend Andy Murray says it is ‘unfortunate’ that Saudi Arabia’s influence on sports is growing around the world.

Tennis is the latest sport linked with investment from the Middle-Eastern country after a merger between the Saudi-backed LIV Golf and the PGA Tour sent shockwaves through men’s professional golf.

There have been ‘positive’ talks between Andrea Gaudenzi – chief of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) – and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) about a potential partnership.

Saudi Arabia’s investments in various sports has attracted criticism and some have accused the nation of sportswashing due to their poor human rights record and subsequent desire to reshape their global image.

Ahead of his opening match at Wimbledon, Murray was asked about previous comments he made in which he said that he would not play in Saudi Arabia.

‘Well, yeah, I mean, in the past when we were asked to go and play there, we were asked to go and play exhibition tournaments,’ Murray said.

‘If they become, like, major tournaments on the tour, it becomes a slightly different question, and it’s a difficult one, really, based on how the tour and the rankings and everything work, how important they are to get into other events and stuff.

‘When you start missing them, you obviously get penalised for that. Yeah, it’s definitely something I would have to think about. Unfortunately it’s the way that a lot of sports seem to be going now.’

Novak Djokovic, meanwhile, was also quizzed about a potential partnership between the ATP and the Saudi PIF.

‘I think personally it was just question of time when they were to start some kind of negotiations or conversations in tennis to try to enter tennis,’ Djokovic said.

Previews: The Championships - Wimbledon 2023

Novak Djokovic feels we must ‘protect the integrity, tradition and history’ of tennis (Picture: Getty)

‘They’ve done that with pretty much all other global sports, except maybe basketball.

‘We see what’s happening in football for the last few years, the stars that are going there for tremendous amounts of money. We know that Formula 1 is there, all the other sports, golf, et cetera. You mentioned golf.

‘I think that we as individual sport on a global level are probably closest to golf in terms of how we see sports.

‘I think from that example we can probably learn a lot, some positives, some negatives, and try to structure a deal if it’s going in that direction in a proper way that is going to protect the integrity and tradition and history of this sport, but still be able to grow it in such way that it will be appropriate.’


MORE : ‘Sign me up!’ – Nick Kyrgios wants Saudi tennis investment


MORE : All eyes on Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic as Wimbledon returns

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