Andy Murray Angry after passing coronavirus on to family

Andy Murray has blamed lax coronavirus protocols at the Lawn Tennis Association’s flagship National Tennis Centre for the positive test that forced him to miss the Australian Open.

The former world number one had to isolate after testing positive on January 11 and was unable to take up his seat on the charter flight organised by Tennis Australia.\

He still hoped a solution could be found to allow him to compete in Melbourne but accepted defeat after being told he would have to endure two weeks of hard quarantine.

Murray said: “I stuck to all of the protocols that were in place. I didn’t leave my house or the NTC for the 10 weeks of training. I was very careful because it’s not just for tennis reasons.”

Murray passed the virus on to his family, with wife Kim testing positive followed by his three young children, while another member of the Scot’s wider family became very ill after also catching it.

He said: “I was p***ed off that I missed the tournament and wasn’t able to go to Australia from a personal perspective but then the wider, more important point is that it’s not just about a tennis tournament when I am going back and giving the virus to all of my family and infecting them. I care about that a lot.”

Murray highlighted notable differences between the environment at the NTC once it was allowed to reopen following the first lockdown and the situation after Christmas, when he felt other users of the centre were not showing the same respect for the rules as he was.

You obviously have an indoor venue where they are using all six courts, there were tons of people in the gym and it was just totally different.

“When we went to the NTC in April last year, if there are six indoor courts, you could only practise on one, three and five,” said the three-time grand slam champion.

“There wasn’t any testing at that time but the gym was closed and it was restricted access. It was very different. “Whereas after Christmas you obviously have an indoor venue where they are using all six courts, there were tons of people in the gym and it was just totally different.

“Now it’s kind of back to what it was in April, which is good because I imagine there is less risk of any transmission and infections, but the reality is that it happened too late because there were quite a number of cases between Christmas, New Year and the players going off to Australia,” added Murray.