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Melbourne - When Andy Murray spoke to his mother on Tuesday morning on the phone, she had some distressing news.
His 24-year-old older brother, Jamie, had an accident at the Australian Open. He's fine, but a baby sparrow apparently is not.
"It's pretty traumatic," said No 5-seeded Murray, the 2010 finalist. "I think he hit a sparrow. A baby sparrow, this morning when he was practicing with a serve. I think he killed it."
Jamie is playing doubles at the Australian Open with Belgium's Xavier Malisse.
On a more upbeat note for the Murray family, Andy advanced to the second round on Tuesday when Karol Beck retired in the third set of match with a shoulder injury. Murray was leading 6-3, 6-1, 4-2 when Beck quit.
"Obviously, you'd rather finish the match off without your opponent being hurt," said Murray. "But, you know, it does happen quite a lot. So you just have to move on and get yourself ready for the next round."
Murray is trying to become the first British man to win a tennis major since Fred Perry in 1936. He came close at last year's Australian Open, where he was the only man to beat Rafael Nadal in a Grand Slam tournament en route to the final where he lost to Roger Federer.
All in all, it's "nice to be through to the second round with no drama," Murray said.
Details of his brother's on-court drama are still to come.
"My mum told me about it when I woke up this morning," Murray said. "But, yeah, I haven't seen him yet today."
Asked if the serve was aimed at the sparrow, he replied, "I hope not!"
