Those who believe Andy Murray does not have a sense of humour have not seen him on social media. The two-time Wimbledon champion has always been difficult to break down on the court.

But the 37-year-old Scot, who had to pull out of Wimbledon singles competition this summer after failing to recover from a back operation in time, is just as fierce on social media. Fellow British tennis star and social media sparring partner Liam Broady will be able to attest to that. Many readers may be fooled into thinking Broady and Murray are enemies due to numerous social media squabbles.

However, the pair appear to share the same dry and blunt sense of humour that can be construed by those out of the loop as bone-cutting seriousness. When you scratch past the surface, it appears the pair are laughing with each other. Daily Express Sport takes a look at some of their most interesting exchanges.

Andy Murray told ‘people wipe your bum’

To Broady, a bagel is two things. A 6-0 scoreline no player wants to be on the end of and a less-than-ideal breakfast item to have before a match. Broady was very displeased with the breakfast options before his Atlanta Open qualifying clash against Shang Junchang.

He took to social media and said: “First match at 10am today so have to warm up at 8:30. Breakfast doesn’t open till 9am? Walked into player area and we’ve got… bagels. Really good for a high standard of tennis and tennis tournament in Atlanta.”

Sensing the perfect opportunity to get under Broady’s skin, Murray replied: “Hope you are okay mate. That sounds terrible. Surprised you hadn’t checked the breakfast situation ahead of time like most professionals would have done.”

Perhaps unhappy with Murray’s blunt remark, Broady replied: “You have five people just to wipe your bum for you man. You’ve never checked a situation ahead of time in your life, we are not the same.”

The Clown

Unhappy with the commentary for Mirra Andreeva’s sensational comeback against Diane Parry in the Australian Open, Murray wrote: “Andreeva down 5-1 in third. Commentator: ‘She really needs to work on the 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.”

Coming to the defence of those on the airwaves, Broady drew his line in the sand by tweeting: “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. But perhaps if she had greater mental composure she wouldn’t have gone 5-1 down in the third in the first place?”

A rather disgruntled-sounding Murray replied: “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 even finished his tweet by adding the clown emoji to really stamp home his feelings towards Broady’s views. His tweet was not challenged by Broady, who opted not to reply.

Broady’s boot

Considering the number of times they went to battle on social media, some tennis fans were surprised to hear Broady call for a statue of Murray at Wimbledon. He said: “Because there’s not many Wimbledon singles champions from our group of islands. We’ve got a statue of Fred Perry here. So maybe he could go somewhere near Fred’s statue. I know that Fred was a big fan of Andy’s, so I think that’d be quite nice.”

This was a nice, respectful and even poignant thing for Broady to say. It came as a surprise as Murray had mocked Broady a matter of days before when he announced a freak injury was keeping him out of the Rothesay Open. Broady hit the top of his head on his car boot and gave himself a freak concussion.

When he found out the news, Murray tweeted: “Think this is the first time I’ve read one of your tweets and believed it.”

Talk about sticking the boot in.

Broady tips Serena Williams for Murray victory

As well as tennis, Broady is also a passionate gamer who regularly streams his online sessions to his followers on Twitch. While playing the tennis game TopSpin 2K25, Broady pitted Murray against the legend that is Serena Williams.

While he was interacting with his fans, Broady said: “I’m going to take a picture. Andy against Serena. I’m going to tag him.”

Murray opted not to reply on social media, despite the bait Broady put out. Broady tried one last swoop to get a reaction from the Scot. He said: “Who gets the win? Serena has the far better stats.”

On this occasion, there was no return from the three-time Grand Slam winner.

Broady’s teapot jibe

At the start of 2022, Murray had a warm-up session with Emma Raducanu ahead of the Australian Open. After she won the US Open, their knock-up, naturally, attracted a lot of media attention and coverage.

Broady sensed an opportunity to spark another light-hearted social media beef. He wrote: “Why is Andy’s body shaped like a teapot in the third picture” which was then followed up with: “I’ve just realised this is Emma’s coach and not Andy haha.”

Moments later, Murray replied: “You didn’t realise, Liam. I told you when you messaged me trying to make fun of me. Not only are you an idiot, you’re a liar.”

As serious as Murray sounded in his tweet, he was actually joking with his former doubles partner.