"Roger Federer was a sore loser for longest time" "Wonder if Federer would be 1 of those"- Fans react to Andy Murray revealing early hostility on tour

Several tennis fans recently named Roger Federer off the top of their head while dissecting which players were 'horrible' to Andy Murray during his early years on the ATP Tour.

Murray sat down for an interview with Tennis Channel following his first-round victory over Belgium's David Goffin at the 2024 Indian Wells Masters on March 7, where he candidly revealed:

"The locker room is a bit of a scary place, you don't know any of the players really and it can be a little bit intimidating at times."

"I remember the players that were really nice to me when I first came on the tour... and I also remember the ones who weren't as well. And that was tough as well when you're a young kid coming up and you've got idols of yours you watch on TV and they're pretty horrible to you," the Brit added.

While Murray didn't particularly name anyone, the discourse on Reddit was rife with insinuations that Roger Federer was not kind to him in his comments to the media.

One fan inferred that the 20-time Major winner could very well be one of the suspects that Murray was referring to, writing:

"Federer was a sore loser for the longest time. Glad he grew out of that phase lol."

Another attributed Federer's loss in six of his first eight matches against Murray to the former's hostility towards the latter.

"I wonder if Federer would be one of those. I remember him being really dismissive about Murray for years even when Murray held a positive h2h against him," they wrote.

Here are a few more reactions from tennis fans:

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Roger Federer once disapproved of Andy Murray's playing style

Roger Federer has a history of giving curt responses whenever he was asked about his thoughts on Andy Murray during press conferences.

After losing to Murray in the first round of the 2008 Dubai Tennis Championships, the Swiss had the following to say about the Brit's playing style:

"He’s going to have to grind very hard for the next few years if he keeps playing this way. He tends to wait a lot for the mistake of the opponent. He stands way far behind on the court and that means you’ve got to do a lot of running."

"I gave him the mistakes today but I think overall, over a 15-year career, you want to look to win a point more often than for an opponent to miss. That’s what served me well over the years but who knows, he might surprise us all and do it for 20 years."

Federer also downplayed Murray achieving a then-career-high ranking of No. 3 in May 2009.

"It’s nice but is there a big difference between being No. 3 and No. 4 in the world? I don’t think so. It’s about being No. 1 or No. 2, being the top seed, being the top dog. That’s what it’s about for Andy," the Swiss told the media.

"I won the U.S. Open and Rafa won the Australian Open. Murray unfortunately didn’t win [the World Tour Finals]… Djokovic did. He didn’t win the big ones but he was very solid in the Masters series," he added.