Murray backtracks after ‘I’ll marry Kim’ tweet

So when the tennis star posted last night on Twitter he was to marry his girlfriend Kim Sears just after this year’s Wimbledon it sparked a flurry of messages of congratulations and media reports. With signs the message was going viral, the Scottish star rapidly backtracked, writing on the site: “Three things. I don’t smoke grass, I’m not getting married (yet) and I don’t want to kill Rafael Nadal.”

His PR agency later said it had been a tongue-in-cheek answer to a question on the website.

Murray’s faux marriage announcement had the potential of reaching almost 2.5 million people who follow him on Twitter.

Ms Sears, an artist, regularly takes a seat courtside alongside at Murray’s matches and the couple have been together since 2005.

She accompanied the 26-year-old to Buckingham Palace last October when the Duke of Cambridge presented him with an OBE. The Scot has spoken fondly of his girlfriend in the past and has said their relationship works well because she “really understands” his sport.

During Wimbledon last year, Murray said Ms Sears, daughter of tennis coach Nigel Sears, copes well with the demands of his career. Murray has made sporting history in recent years ending the nation’s wait for a men’s singles grand slam winner when we won the US Open in 2012 and becoming the first British men’s singles champion since the 1930s at Wimbledon a year later.