Andy Murray used the clown emoji to hit back at fellow British player Liam Broady during a social media exchange over Mirra Andreeva’s brilliant comeback at the Australian Open.
Former world No 1 Murray was impressed by the 16-year-old Andreeva’s mental strength during her incredible third-round victory over Diane Parry.
Down 1-6, 6-1, 1-5 [30-40], the teenager got her act together and turned things around to come away with a 1-6, 6-1, 7-6 [8-6] victory and notch up her first win after facing a match point.
After the commentators questioned her mental strength during the match, Murray sniped back on X writing: “Andreeva down 5-1 in third. Commentator ‘she really needs to work on mental side of her game.. she’s too hard on herself when she’s losing’. 30 minutes later 7-6 Andreeva wins.
“Maybe the reason she turned the match round is because of her mental strength. Maybe she turned the match around because she is hard on herself and demands more of herself when she’s losing/playing badly? Winner.”
Fellow professional player Broady chimed in as he felt Murray should have used “mental composure” instead of “mental strength”.
“Mental strength is the wrong phrase. To come from 5-1 down in the third in a Slam at her age is great mental strength,” he replied. “But perhaps if she had greater mental composure she wouldn’t have gone 5-1 down in the third in the first place?”
But Murray retorted with one of those blunt replies that he has become known for.
“I don’t understand your tweet. You said mental strength is the wrong phrase and then in the next sentence say coming from 5-1 down is great mental strength. Liam Broady the walking contradiction. 🤡” he wrote.
Andreeva, who is a big fan of Murray, was just happy that the three-time Grand Slam winner watched her match.
“I didn’t really think that he would watch a match, then after he would tweet, he would comment something,” she said.
“Honestly, I will try to print it out somehow. I don’t know, I will put it in a frame. I will bring it everywhere with me. I will maybe put it on the wall so I can see it every day.”
Asked about how she felt about her three wins so far this tournament, the youngster said: “I don’t think it’s a big deal. Fourth round, yes, I’m 16, maybe it’s a bit new.
“Fourth round is nothing. Maybe if I win a Slam, I have to win three more matches, and it’s really tough to win seven matches in a row. I don’t think that I did something incredible. I have time to do it, I hope.”
