Andy Murray last won the cinch Championships in 2016 (Image: Getty)
Andy Murray received backing from the tournament director of the upcoming Open 13 in Marseille.
Andy Murray has been told that he is “worth more” than players in the world’s top 20 ahead of the Open 13 Provence in Marseille. The Brit is yet to win a match this season but tournament director Jean-Francois Caujolle said he’d rather give the three-time Grand Slam winner a prime time slot over some higher-ranked players, singling out world No. 11 Alex de Minaur in an unprompted snub.
Andy Murray will be competing in Marseille next week as he looks to get a long-awaited win. The world No. 49 crashed out in the opening rounds of Brisbane, the Australian Open and Montpellier and has not won a match since October. But the 36-year-old will still be favoured over some of the big names when he arrives at next week’s ATP 250 event, as the tournament director declared that he was “a guy you put on prime time.”
Born in Marseille, Caujolle created the Open 13 event and has been running it ever since. And he explained why it was better to have 2008 champion Murray at the tournament over some of today’s top stars. “Andy Murray, like Matteo Berrettini and even Denis Shapovalov, these are names,” he told La Provence.
“They have a quality of play, a presence. Having Murray is nice, it’s great.” The former world No. 59 also singled out De Minaur as an example in a move that could anger the Australian. Caujolle added: “Murray is worth more than a 15th or 20th in the world that the general public doesn’t know.
“Between Murray and Alex de Minaur, I prefer to have Murray. He’s a guy you put on prime time.” The unprompted comment could cost Caujolle and his Marseille tournament, as De Minaur may not want to compete there in the future given the snub.
The Open 13 caused controversy earlier this week when Sinner pulled out following his Australian Open triumph. The tournament’s official account on X (formerly known as Twitter) shared a photo of the world No. 4 and tweeted: “Sinner snub.” Following backlash, they deleted it and reposted it writing: “Sinner withdraws,” with a shocked emoji.
