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After being defeated by Roger Federer in this week's ATP World Tour Finals in the group stage, UK tennis player and Grand Slam winner Andy Murray had decided to hang up the racket and pick up the pad for a day — Sunday to be exact. However, his R&R came to a screeching halt, as he received a call from the ATP; he was asked to play Novak Djokovic in a one-set exhibition match due to Federer pulling out of the championship match with a back injury (Djokovic was crowned champion in London for the third consecutive year because of this withdrawal).

Murray acted immediately, put down the Nintendo controller, and raced himself to the O2 Arena in London. Having lost 8-5 to Djokovic, Murray revealed his greater successes at an extremely popular Nintendo title:

I was playing Mario Kart on my sofa when I got the call. I was winning at that. Mario Kart is better than my tennis.

He then cheekily apologised due to him having "clearly pushed Roger so hard" in their previous match — in reality Murray had endured possibly his worst match of the year, losing 6-0, 6-1 to Federer.

It was later revealed by ATP chief Chris Kermode that Murray did not ask for a fee to play. Instead, he made a deal with best friend Ross Hutchins — whose wedding he'll attend as best man next week — to cut his speech short.

After hearing the news of Murray's video-game antics that Sunday afternoon, Djokovic had his own say on the unexpected turn of events:

I wasn't playing video-games when I received the news today, I was preparing myself for the last match of the season. I did my warm up. During the doubles match I heard Roger had troubles with the back and he's not able to play. It's disappointing news, but I want to thank Andy, he made a great effort to come out here.

Djokovic couldn't be more right — interrupting anyone's hard-earned session of Mario Kart is a big no-no, and Murray showed his true colours by packing up the pads.

[source espn.co.uk]