If you hadn't heard, Andy Murray, the Scottish tennis player who last night reached the US Open final with a very impressive win over Rafael Nadal - who holds the French Open, Wimbledon, Olympics and world No.1 titles - is also on Twitter. (And if you haven't heard of Twitter, start here, and follow here.)
Murray - born in May 1987 - is a paid-up member of Generation Y - he's got a site and blog (though that seems pretty much defunct - no update since Wimbledon) and he loves playing videogames - to the faint despair of his former coach Brad Gilbert, one senses:
His idea of a great time is studying his opponent's play on DVDs. And then he plays video games seven hours a day. So if he is not playing video games or playing tennis, he is with his girlfriend. He lives a quiet relaxed life, focused on being a tennis player. But he is obsessed with video games," he says when asked to describe his former charge, before adding a telling after-thought. "I don't play video games."
And of course his mobile phone is rarely far away, though he seems so far not to have taken it on court. ("g2g, ump called time").
However we're not quite sure Andy's really got the measure of this Twitter thing. Usually, people sign up, and they start "following" other people - a group of those whose views and experiences they're interested to hear about. Usually it approaches and then rapidly breaks through the Dunbar number (150), while their followers may grow concomitantly, depending on how interesting their tweets are.
Murray's most recent, at the time of writing: "sat in redeye getting dinner. good to get the job done today. pumped to meet will ferrell! wish me luck!" (Ferrell watched his semifinal, and at one point pulled up his shirt to expose his biceps - echoing Murray's gesture at Wimbledon. Interestingly, he posted it via "mobile web" - sounds like a smartphone to me.)
Murray, however, is following precisely 1 person: his brother Jamie, who reached the mixed open final in New York, only to lose to the favourites. And Jamie's following nobody. Come on, guys. Isn't there anyone you'd like to hear from? Will there come a day when Nadal and Federer and Murray and Djokovic trade insults via Twitter ahead of a match? Will boxers? Well, certainly not if they don't follow anyone. It's the social thing, you see.
