Sex before matches makes Andy Murray sizzle on court

Tennis ace Andy Murray has revealed that he does not avoid sex on the eve of a big match.

Many sportsmen swear by avoiding sex before a big event. For some, it is even a strict order from their coach so that they can focus on the contest they face.

The British tennis player, however, said because he plays so often abstaining before matches would mean he was always saying no.

In contrast to the likes of Muhammad Ali, who is said to have abstained for six weeks before each fight, Murray admitted: 'I'm not one of those sportsmen who practises a strict policy of sexual abstinence before playing.'

"Tennis is not like boxing. I remember a former world heavyweight whose trainer banned him from having sex six weeks before a fight. We play every week, so with a boxer's mentality we'd always be saying 'no'," the Daily Mail quoted Murray, whose relationship with girlfriend Kim Sears goes back six years, as telling Spain's El Mundo newspaper.

At least the world No 4 is free to make his own decisions, unlike the German football team who were banned by then manager Berti Vogts from having sex before games at the 1994 World Cup.