Andy seeks ring's return

Andy Murray, Britain's king of the tennis courts, has taken to social media in a desperate attempt to retrieve his stolen wedding ring.

The 34-year-old lost the ring while practising ahead of his bow in a tournament in Indiana Wells in the US – and he is now firmly in the "bad books" of wife, Kim.

Before every practice session and match, Murray takes off the ring and ties it to the laces of his tennis shoes.

After he had finished a training session last night (Thursday), the three-time grand slam champion took off his shoes – which were a "bit smelly" after enduring several hours of exercise in the Californian heat – and left them under a rental car he is using, so they could dry out ahead of tonight's first round match against France's Adrian Mannarino.

Alas, when he went to retrieve the shoes, which were too pungent to be left in his hotel room, they were gone – and so, too, was the precious ring.

Now the Scot is urging his supporters to quickly come to his aid.

"I left the shoes underneath the car to let the air get to them," he said in a Facebook video posted by the Association of Tennis Professionals. "When I got back to the car in the morning, the shoes were gone."

The loss of the shoes were not the end of the world, as Murray quickly bought some replacements from a local sports shop. But it was only as he prepared to take part in more training that the true scale of his loss became apparent.

"My physio said to me 'where is your wedding ring?' and I was like 'oh, no'.

"I tie my wedding ring to my tennis shoes when I am playing because I can't play with it on my hand. So, my wedding ring has been stolen as well, and needless to say, I am in the bad books at home. So, I want to try and find it.

"If anyone has a clue where they [the shoes and ring] may be, it would be very helpful, so I can try and get it back."

Murray's match against Mannarino is the first time he has appeared in the tournament since 2017. Whatever the result, he is guaranteed to remember the event for a long time to come.