Murray's Relationship With The Media

Like Him or not Murray does have a very unusual relationship with the media. Despite having access to what I can only presume is a highly paid and well qualified PR team he often comes out with remarks that leave him open to critism. (I could list examples but I won't) His supporters refer to his dry humour and his refusal to bow to pressures to care what people think. As fans who follow him closely they feel he is missunderstood. However he and his fans should be aware that those without such spcecialised knowledge will judge him on what he says and what he is reported to have said.

Part of his job is to develop a good relationship with the media. A posative image helps sell tennis tickets. Without ticket sales he would have no job no matter how good he is at hitting the ball. As with many things in his career he should look no further than Nadal and Federer as role models on how to do his job well. Unlike tennis skills this is a relatively easy area to improve. But because it should be easy failing to make an effort looks arrogant or ignorant or both...

As someone who follows tennis its impossable for me to ignore this. I have to admit that I often find his interviews more entertaining than his matches in a car crash, don't look sort of way. From a psychological perspective it is difficult to understand whats going on. I know his fans only want to read positive things about Murray and it must be irritating to read critism of Murray that they feel unfair. However there is no smoke without fire and unless the cause is addressed Murray and his fans would do well to develop a very thick skin!

Again this is another pointless article.

I don't think he has a strange relationship with the media at all. Pundits in the past have always remarked to how he doesn't suffer fools in the media if they ask 'daft' questions.

Federer has been criticised by most fans on here for his comments on matches he lost.

Nadal has made some bizarre comments this year and has had criticism about his comments about MTO's and fitness.

Trying to put Murray into a category on his own is nonsense!!

Christ we really are struggling for any sensible conversation on this forum.

Christ we really are struggling for any sensible conversation on this forum.

Yes, why don't we have a "Golden Era" topic? We never had 1 of those before...

legendkiller. I wasn't just referring to critism of Murray here. Generally he comes in for more than his fair share in most places where tennis is discussed. As far as off court critism Murray is in a class of his own. You must have your fingers in your ears and your eyes shut if you are not aware of this.

Sometimes some of the comments he makes promotes more talk than the matches he plays. Your remark about him "not suffering fools" could even be used as an example. People working in the media are not usually "fools" or if they are they are on balance no more foolish than young tennis players. For Murray to act as if they are as he did with for example the "joke" about his new coach earlier this year is foolish and disrespectful. The people in the media are Murrays work colleagues. Murray taking a public swipe at at a work colleague is both ignorant and arrogant.

As I have said I have no idea why he chooses to act in this way. It could be easily fixed.

Come on Hawkeye it was an April fools joke which caught out some of the media. The media tend to do April fools every year and are proud of it. Are they disrespecting their customers ? One of the big criticisms of Murray off court seems to be that he is humourless and hasn't got a personality. Now he is being criticised for doing so.

As for his other interviews up until the recent 'strike talk' one (which I don't think he should have done) he has been pretty guarded for a number of years now after being caught out a couple of times in his early career. Surely the media will appreciate him saying something controversial rather than the bland 'yeah I played quite well, my opponent gave me a hard game but I managed to win, I'll need to raise my level for the next game'
It gives them something to write about (and also provides discussion points for forums like this).

We get a British perspective and the relationship of the British media with British sports stars is always tall poppy (big 'em up, cut 'em down). This is exacerbated in tennis where we tend to focus on 2 weeks of the year and remember Fred Perry. Throw into that mix the fact that Murray is unapologetically a lower-middle-class Scot in what is very firmly portrayed by the media as (in the UK) a sport for the aspiring upper-middle-class Home Counties types and coverage and analysis of what he says is always going to start from a complicated place.

I have no idea what I'd think of him as a person if I met him, but he has every reason to be wholly distrustful of the media and I greatly respect the way he deals with them. The easy way out would be to blank them with a sea of meaningless platitudes - he doesn't and fair do's to him.

One area where I think he can be legitimately criticised is his failure to play tennis with a poker face.

Calder106 wrote:Come on Hawkeye it was an April fools joke which caught out some of the media. The media tend to do April fools every year and are proud of it. Are they disrespecting their customers ? One of the big criticisms of Murray off court seems to be that he is humourless and hasn't got a personality. Now he is being criticised for doing so.

As for his other interviews up until the recent 'strike talk' one (which I don't think he should have done) he has been pretty guarded for a number of years now after being caught out a couple of times in his early career. Surely the media will appreciate him saying something controversial rather than the bland 'yeah I played quite well, my opponent gave me a hard game but I managed to win, I'll need to raise my level for the next game'
It gives them something to write about (and also provides discussion points for forums like this).

I don't think Murray is humourless or hasn't got a personality. I wouldn't call him bland either as I'm often entertained by the contraversial statements he makes. Murray gets critised for what he says and to a certain extent for how he acts not for being bland. I do however think he's doing himself no favours. He would be better off being a bit more bland instead of saying things that draw attention to himself in a bad way.

His fans should think about why he attracts such criticism. Its a bit blinkered just to say its un called for. The bit I don't understand is that he employs PR people to advise him about handling the media. He doesn't have to be in the media spotlight in a bad way. His job isn't to talk its to play tennis and bad publicity must be distracting. Is he foolish or is he just surrounded by fools.

I think it is probably impossible not to have unguarded moments hawkeye - the top players seem to be required to spend nearly as much time in pressers as they do on the practice court!!!! I also think that AM has a fairly dry sense of humour sometimes and when his comments are repeated verbatim without watching him, that is lost.

I actually think the British media are completely OTT, and it is probably a bit much to expect top class sportsmen and women to be top class diplomats at the same time - I would say that, in the main, the top guys do both very well.

Re the recent comments about length of the tour - Andy responded to a journalist's questions, but in hindsight I think he, and Rafa, would have been wiser to consult with the full players' council first and then take grievances to ATP, as laver I think suggested on another thread.

Not really arguing with you Hawkeye as I said in previous post and as Time Please has said I don't think he should have spoken on the length of tour issue. It sholud have been done through the players council. My issue was more with your picking out his April fool joke as being ignorant and arrogant. It was a joke and that's what it should be taken as.