Andy Murray has taken to social media to initiate a search for his lost wedding ring after his tennis shoes were stolen in California with his ring attached to them.
In a video posted to his Instagram page on Wednesday night, Murray explained how he managed to lose his tennis shoes and wedding ring in unusual circumstances. Murray is currently preparing for his first-round match against Adrian Mannarino at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, where he is two-time champion but making his first appearance since 2017.
Murray says that had been training in 38-39 degrees heat when his shoes had become “damp, sweaty and smelly”, so he decided to air them out when he returned to the hotel. Since he has no balcony, and he did not want to “stink the room out”, he opted for the unorthodox solution of leaving his tennis shoes under his car to dry them out overnight.
“When I got back to the car in the morning the shoes were gone,” he said. “My tennis shoes for the tournament had been stolen, so I had to go to a local pro shop and buy different shoes to what I normally wear – different brand and everything – which isn’t the end of the world but obviously not ideal.”
Murray, who has been married to Kim Sears since 2015, normally weaves his wedding ring into his shoelaces and it is visible during matches, but he did not realise the implications of losing this pair of shoes until some time later: "As I was preparing for my practice, my physio said to me 'where's your wedding ring?', and I was like, 'Oh no'. I tie my wedding ring to my tennis shoes when I'm playing because I can't play with it on my hand, so yeah, my wedding ring's been stolen as well," he said.
In his caption on Instagram, Murray acknowledged that he is “an idiot”, that leaving his shoes under his car overnight was “a terrible idea” in hindsight and he speculated about a possible reward for the return of his ring. “Needless to say I’m in the bad books at home so I want to try and find it,” he said. “If anyone can share this or may have any clue where they may be it would be very helpful so I can try and get it back.”
Equipped with his new shoes, Murray will face Mannarino in Friday's night session at Indian Wells. Emma Raducanu will be Murray's co-headliner as she contests her first match since winning the US Open. She will play against Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus.
Despite competing with a metal hip at 34 years old, in recent events Murray's sweaty shoes have arguably been his biggest impediment. At the US Open, Murray led Stefanos Tsitsipas, the third seed, by a set and had set point in the tie-break and he was playing his best tennis in four years when his shoes became drenched in sweat. He lost grip and the crucial second set, and he spent the break criticising his team for their lack of preparedness. He eventually lost in five tight sets.
Afterwards, Murray said that he had never had on-court issues with tennis shoes in his life. “The shoes got so wet that at the end of the set, I was slipping basically and was losing balance. That’s why I needed to change after the set. And it was fine. I guess something for me to learn from and in the future is make sure that doesn’t happen again,” he said.
Many tennis players travel with multiple pairs of tennis shoes precisely because problems with footwear are always a possibility. On his next journey, Murray may well do the same. – Guardian
