Andy Murray takes tongue-in-cheek swipe at compatriot Liam Broady over latter's participation as commentator at Six Kings Slam

Andy Murray has poked fun at Liam Broady over the latter's involvement in the ongoing Six Kings Slam in Saudi Arabia. Broady is one of the analysts/commentators for the high-profile exhibition tournament, and has previously engaged in banter with Murray over his excitement about the event that features the likes of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Daniil Medvedev and Holger Rune.

The 2024 Six Kings Slam, organized by Riyadh Season, is the inaugural edition of the exhibition tournament. It has particularly caused a stir in the tennis world because of the lucrative prize money of $6,000,000 for the participating players. No other tournament in the history of the sport has offered such extravagant prize money, not even the prestigious Grand Slams.

Djokovic and Nadal were granted straight passage to the semifinals, while Alcaraz, Sinner, Medvedev and Rune kicked things off in the quarterfinals. Following the quarterfinal results, Djokovic is set to face Sinner in one of the semifinals while Nadal is slated to lock horns against Alcaraz in the other one.

In the buildup to the Six Kings Slam, a grand promotional video was released, showcasing the participating players as warrior-like figures. Liam Broady was highly appreciative of the video but his legendary compatriot Andy Murray was less than impressed, and opined that there would be very few takers of the event because at the end of the day, it is an exhibition tournament.

Recently, it came to light that Broady had been roped in by the event as one of its English-speaking analysts/commentators. As soon as Murray noticed this, he took to X (formerly Twitter) and suggested that he can finally understand why Broady was so appreciative of the promotional video.

"Ahhhh now it makes sense @Liambroady," Murray wrote, followed by four dollar bundle emojis.

Earlier this year, Murray had laid bare his concern over a deal that was struck between the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF).

Andy Murray expressed his cautious stance on ATP's deal with Saudi Arabia's PIF

In February this year, the ATP and Saudi Arabia's PIF jointly announced that they had entered into an agreement, which saw the PIF becoming a sponsor of the men's tennis governing body on two fronts; its ranking system and also it's year-end World No. 1 title.

Shortly after the news became public, Andy Murray was asked about his thoughts on the development during a press conference. Murray said that he himself was not sure of what the deal entails, but suggested that huge sums of money would be involved. However, the former World No. 1 opined that it's necessary that the money trickles down to the lower-ranked players on the ATP Tour, many of who struggle to make ends meet.

"I don’t know exactly what it means by sponsoring the events. I don’t know what that will look like. One of my concerns is actually more about the investment in lower levels of the game and the grassroots of the sport. I think that’s extremely important. Obviously there’s going to be a lot of money coming in, I would imagine, but I hope that that’s not just coming into the top of the game," Murray said.

Three-time Major winner Andy Murray has since announced his retirement from tennis, with his final singles appearance coming at the Queen's Club Championships in the buildup to Wimbledon 2024. He played his last doubles match at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where he reached the quarterfinals alongside Dan Evans before ultimately losing to the American pair of Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul.