THE CHANGE OF ends during a tennis match is usually seen as an opportunity for players to catch their breath and get some fluid on board.
Occasionally, they would use the break to switch rackets or change their top.
But Andy Murray made full use of the time during the change-over to take a scissors out of his bag and give himself an impromptu hair cut.
Trailing 2-1 in the opening set of his ATP World Tour Finals game against Rafa Nadal, something was clearly on Murray’s mind.
He was struggling to contend with Nadal’s powerful ground strokes and his overflowing fringe wasn’t helping.
Something needed to be done.
The world number two went rummaging in his bag before pulling out a scissors to cut off a chunk of his hair. As you do.
Unfortunately for Murray and the crowd at the 02 Arena in London the drastic action didn’t result into drastic results as the Scot was overpowered by Nadal as he slumped to a straight sets defeat.
Almost inevitably, Murray’s barnet was the topic of conversation in the press conference afterwards – although he didn’t really seem to understand what all the fuss was about.
“I had some hair in my eye and I just wanted to get rid of it. That literally took two seconds and that was it,” he said.
“It was nothing to do with next week or anything to do with the outcome of this match.
“I started the match extremely well.”
The result (on the court) means Murray will in all likelihood have to beat Stan Wawrinka in his final round-robin group game to progress to the semi-finals.
Let’s hope he gets a chance to visit the local barbers before then.
