“Boring” Tennis Star Murray Avoids Scandals

Andy Murray, the British No. 1 tennis star who was forced to opt out of the French Open this year due to pressing back problems, has defended what has been called his “boring” character.  Murray was criticized – along with the other top 3 world players, Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer – for “lacking character” by eccentric Latvian player Ernests Gublis.  In an interview to a French magazine, Gublis said: “Tennis today lacks characters. I respect Roger, Rafa, Novak and Murray but all four are boring players.”

“Their interviews are boring, they are rubbish. It’s a joke. It is Federer who started this fashion. He has a superb image of the perfect Swiss gentleman. I respect him but I don’t like it when players try to imitate him. If I win, the guy on the other side of the net, I have sent him home. I don’t want to hear an interview with a guy I will not name, but who I know full well thinks all his opponents are a***holes, putting on an act.”

However, the Scottish Murray said that is more of a strategic decision he has made to keep his interviews as bland as possible simply because he wants to avoid saying something that could lead to scandals.”I always try and give honest answers, but they are fairly boring so I don’t have to deal with the aftermath of scandals,” he said.

Gublis, it seems, wants to draw his opponents into a battle on-court and off and baited them in his interview to the French magazine – calling for the type of interviews that one regularly sees before boxing matches. “I have no interest in appearing nice,” he said. “On the court it’s a war”.

Gublis, who was arrested in 2009 for soliciting a prostitute in Sweden, was ousted from the French Open at the hands of Gael Monfils this week.