No sooner had Andy Murray worked his way through a tricky Wimbledon quarter-final against Fernando Verdasco in five gruelling sets than he was handed his most uncomfortable moment of the evening: an interview with Garry Richardson.Most of the interview was pretty standard, but a bizarre final question, haltingly delivered, beggared belief as Richardson attempted to shoehorn in a reference to Sir Alex Ferguson, who had been in attendance for the match.
"Sir Alex Ferguson was in the Royal Box today watching you," Richardson began, "and he has been known to go into the dressing room after matches and give his players a bit of the hairdryer treatment. Will Lendl [Ivan, Murray’s coach] say some things to you Andy to sort of gee you up or do you not need that or do you know it all yourself?"
"I don’t know it all," Murray replied, "far from it, but I don’t see why I should get told off for that. I fought as hard as I could, tried incredibly hard, chased every single ball down to the first to the last and I came through an incredibly tough match."The Scot's interview with the BBC was the talk of Twitter, and even spread across the pond, where USA Today reflected on 'rambling questions that seemed to insult Murray's performance'.
But that's just the start of it: the BBC invariably puts such post-match interviews on their website in their entirety, and gives them a prominent slot on their sport homepage this morning.
Richardson's interview has had a very different treatment, however: the offending final section has been mercilessly trimmed, and the video itself hidden.
All is not lost, however: while we've no desire to get into a legal fight with the BBC (any more than we already might for carrying this story), users on YouTube aren't so fearful of the corporation's lawyers and have the full awfulness of the offending section right here for your entertainment pleasure.
As for Murray's reaction? Well, he kept a straight face at a rambling 'hairdryer' reference, and answered Richardson's questions - but swiftly turned his back on the presenter once the interview was over and Richardson began trying to explain himself.
Garry Richardson - Photo BBCTwitter users were ruthless in mocking the exchange.
"After that cringeworthy interview with Murray," wrote Will Hawkins, referencing comic creation Alan Partridge, "someone has had a filed day rewriting Garry Richardson's Wikipedia page #Partridge"
"Ah," added Tom English, "Just saw Garry Richardson's interview with Andy Murray. Now I understand why Twitter has reacted badly. Hairdryer for Richardson."
"Like watching a train crash in slow motion," reckoned TennisAddicto.
"Garry Richardson trudges off with his crowbar, content with having mentioned Sir Alex Ferguson for no apparent reason," concluded BeardedGenius.
Given the nature of the reaction, Murray himself felt compelled to take to the social networking site and come out in defence of Richardson.
"Don't be too hard on garry richardson he had a bad day and he apologised afterwards," Murray tweeted.
The Scot also wrote: "Got to spend 15 minutes with sir alex ferguson afterwards.. fascinating person... He's got some great stories."
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