ANDY MURRAY trolled a Sky Sports pundit with dollar signs over their role in a controversial Saudi tournament.
The Six Kings Slam takes place in Riyadh this season with Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and Holger Rune all competing.
Andy Murray took a brutal dig at his pal over his new role[/caption]
Liam Broady is on punditry duties at the Six Kings Slam in Saudi Arabia[/caption]
The Middle East event promised players a whopping £1.12million appearance fee just for turning up.
Incredibly, the winner of Saturday’s final between Sinner and Alcaraz is set to pocket £4.6m – double the amount Alcaraz received for winning Wimbledon and the largest prize in tennis history.
And Murray, 37, could not resist a cheeky dig at his close pal Liam Broady for signing up to cover the event – hinting he too was being paid handsomely for the gig.
It all started when the lefty British tennis ace – who has twice reached the third round at Wimbledon – shared the Six Kings Slam’s five-minute trailer at the end of September.
Broady, 30, wrote: “Speechless as to how damn cool this promo is. Probably best I’ve ever seen in tennis. Would watch this movie. 10/10.”
But cynic Murray hit back with his dry sense of humour: “Except it’s not a movie and you won’t watch it because it’s an exhibition tennis event that nobody cares about,” followed by a thumbs-up emoji.
World No478 Broady replied: “Omfg man why you so negative,” to which Muzza simply added a fishing emoji, suggesting his friend had nibbled.
Then on Wednesday, Murray reignited their latest hilarious social media spat.
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He shared a tweet promoting the Six Kings Slam on Sky Sports Tennis – with Broady joining Gigi Salmon and Pat Cash for coverage.
And that prompted three-time Grand Slam champ Murray to quip: “Ahhhh now it makes sense @Liambroady,” and then added four dollar-bill emojis.
The tournament is an exhibition event staged as part of Riyadh Season – meaning it is not sanctioned by the ATP and therefore no rankings points are on offer, just huge sums of cash.
Sinner beat Medvedev then Djokovic to book his place in the so-called ‘Grand Final’ while Alcaraz saw off Rune and compatriot Nadal 6-3 6-3.
That was Nadals’ first match since announcing his upcoming retirement after next month’s Davis Cup finals in Spain.
Murray, meanwhile, hung up his racquet in the summer following the Paris Olympics – and plans to open a new restaurant in his five-star hotel.
But he has wasted no time embracing a new sport.
Andy Murray’s career timeline
SIR Andy Murray is Great Britain’s most successful tennis player of the Open era.
After breaking through in 2005 to reach the Wimbledon third round at 18, the Scot was British No1 by the following year.
In 2008 he reached his first Grand Slam final at the US Open, only to fall to Roger Federer in straight sets.
Two more final defeats at the Australian Open to Federer and Novak Djokovic followed in 2010 and 2011 before heartbreak at Wimbledon in 2012.
Despite taking the first set against Federer, he fell 4-6 7-5 6-3 6-4 in front of a home crowd before breaking into tears on Centre Court.
But a month later on the same court he beat the Swiss legend to earn Team GB a gold medal at the London 2012 Olympics.
And weeks after that he broke his Grand Slam duck at the fifth attempt, beating Djokovic in five sets in the US Open final.
In 2013, following another Australian Open final loss, Murray beat Djokovic in straight sets to become the first British man in 77 years to win the Wimbledon title.
Three more losing Grand Slam finals followed, at the 2015 and 2016 Australian Opens and the 2016 French Open.
But in his third Grand Slam final of 2016, Murray won Wimbledon again with a straight sets victory over Canadian Milos Raonic.
He followed it up with his second Olympic gold medal, beating Juan Martin del Potro in a four-hour epic in the final in Rio de Janeiro.
Later in 2016 Murray became world No1 – the first British man to do so in history.
Over his career Murray reached 11 Grand Slam finals, winning three. He won two Olympic golds and a silver (in the mixed doubles alongside Laura Robson).
He finishes his career with 46 titles and over £50million in earnings, making him the fourth all-time leader in earnings.
His final match was at the Paris 2024 Olympics, where he lost in the quarter-final of the men’s doubles at Roland Garros to USA pair Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz.
He joined Bob MacIntyre, Jimmy Anderson and Anton Du Beke at the BMW PGA Championship Celebrity Pro-Am last month.
And he followed it up with his first golf trophy this week, winning the inaugural British Tennis Journalists’ Association Mike Dickson in memory of the revered late tennis writer who passed away suddenly while covering the Australian Open in January.
The BTJA wrote on X: “Thanks to everyone who joined us at Hanbury Manor yesterday for the first BTJA Mike Dickson Golf Day, supported by @InfluenceSports.
“Well done to our winner @andy_murray on claiming the first trophy of his golfing career.
“Think there are many more to come by the looks of it…”
Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal faced off on Thursday – with £4.6m on offer for the winner of the tournament[/caption]
Neymar popped along to the event and spoke to Nadal on the court[/caption]
The ex-world No1 is enjoying getting to grips with a new sport[/caption]
