Andy Murray says Rory McIlroy is entitled to feel “frustrated and a bit let down” by golf’s shock merger and insisted he would never play in Saudi Arabia.
The British star has previously turned down invites to play exhibition tennis events there due to the nation’s human rights record.
After making hard work yesterday of winning through to the Surbiton Trophy quarter-finals against an opponent new to grass he made it clear his position remains unchanged.
“I don’t genuinely know the [golf] details,” said the two-time Wimbledon champion. “But if I was one of the golfers who had stuck with the PGA I’d probably be pretty frustrated and feel a bit let down."
McIlroy championed the PGA stance from the start and, reacting to the shock merger between them, the DP World Tour and LIV Golf, funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund [PIF], said he felt like "a sacrificial lamb".
Murray added: “There’s been lots of different sporting events go there (Saudi) over the last few years - a lot of major boxing fights, obviously the golf, a Formula One race.
“I would imagine it will only be a matter of time before we start seeing tennis tournaments there. But I wouldn’t play, no.”
In the Surrey sunshine Murray set up a last-eight clash against Australian fifth seed Jason Kubler by beating Bu Yunchaokete, impressing in his first ever tournament on the surface, 7-6 (7-1), 6-4.
Yunchaokete, ranked 173 in the world, kept the Scot out on court for more than two hours and after being forced into a first set tie break Murray yelled: “I don’t know what’s going on in my game!”
Even after taking it for the loss of just one point the two-time Wimbledon champion could not settle into any sort of rhythm.
It was then a spectator fainted in the front row of the crowd and in the resultant break in play at Murray used his experience to reset and finished strongly.
Jodie Burrage’s hopes of replacing Emma Raducanu as British number one came to grief in the first round of the women's draw to complete an awful 24 hours for her and her boyfriend.
Scotland rugby scrum-half Ben White plays for the London Irish club which folded on Tuesday and filed for administration yesterday.
An hour later Burrage crashed out in three sets to fellow Brit Yuriko Miyazaki, 3-6 6-2 6-4.
Burrage, 24, admitted White’s predicament “played on my mind a little bit” as she lost to an opponent more than 100 places below her in the world rankings.
"It's really sad what's happened to the club and not just the players but staff and everyone else,” she said. ”I just hope everyone can find jobs soon.”
