Andy Murray turned down a seven-figure sum to play an exhibition match in Saudi Arabia due to the country’s human-rights record, his representative has revealed. Saudi Arabia has thrown huge sums of money at sport in recent years to attract the stars of tennis, golf and boxing, and last month hosted its first Formula One Grand Prix. SponsoredCritics have said the nation is attempting to use “sports-washing” to improve its image, which suffered another blow this week when a damning report from Human Rights Watch cited “near total repression of critical voices”. Gentry said Murray wasn’t interested in the “eye-watering sums of money” involved ALAMYMatt Gentry, a long-time adviser to Murray, above, and co-founder of his 77 Sports Management agency, said sums of up to $2 million (£1.5 million) were being offered to top tennis stars to

Source: The Times January 15, 2022 03:27 UTC