• Australian Open

Murray defends fiancée Sears after foul-mouthed outburst

Andy Murray leapt to the defence of fiancée Kim Sears after the British No.1 triumphed in a tension-filled semi-final against Tomas Berdych at the Australian Open.

The build-up to the match was dominated by discussions surrounding Dani Vallverdu - Murray's former long-term coach and close friend who is now working with Berdych.

And as Murray broke back to make it 5-4 in an intense opening set, the camera cut to Sears who caught directing some choice language toward's Berdych's team.

'Mauresmo should not be criticised'

• Andy Murray was also annoyed that people were more interested in the fact former coach Dani Vallverdu is now working with Berdych than what Amelie Mauresmo is doing for the British No.1's game.
• "I got asked all the time about my ex-coach working with Tomas and no one was interested in anything I was doing with Amelie or the way I was playing," Murray said.
• "A lot of people were also criticising her at the end of last year, like the way I was playing was her fault when I'd spent two weeks training with her up to the end of the year.
• "You can't change things during tournaments. There was very little time to spend with each other. There's no reason for her to be criticised for anything."

"When there's a lot of tension surrounding something, which [the media] created, then it's completely normal," Murray said in his post-match press-conference.

"The whole first set everyone was tight. My physical trainer, physio … I'm sure for Dani it was uncomfortable. Even Tomas, who very rarely says anything on the court, there was tension there for him, as well.

"In the heat of the moment you can say stuff that you regret. That's it."

When pushed on the Vallverdu tension, Murray again turned it around on the reporters.

"You guys wanted there to be," he added. "You wanted there to be tension. It's completely normal for that to happen. I sat in here the other day and got asked more questions about Dani than I did about the match I just played.

"Because of everything that's gone on it's kind of a natural thing to happen. If you learn how the brain works, it's completely natural for that. So I kind of expected and had planned for that to be the case as well."

Murray, who himself was captured screaming "F***!" on several occasions, also poured water on suggestions there was a fiery moment as he and Berdych passed at the net following the first set.

"He said something literally as we were walking right past each other," Murray said. "I don't know exactly what he said. I just told the umpire that he said something to me and that was it."

You can see Sears' outburst here.

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