By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday February 7, 2024
“That’s what people don’t realize,” says Fraser McKnight, the man who "allegedly" plays Sir Andy Murray. “It’s all just scripted – the players, the matches, it’s all just kind of made up… We usually get our storylines at the start of the year and we try to make everything look natural. Let’s face it, people are stupid, they’ll buy anything.”
Bert Critchley, the man who plays Novak Djokovic, talks about the challenge of trying to portray a 24-time Grand Slam champion that is constantly in the public eye.
“Something that I’m really trying to evoke with this Novak character is not just the performance and the achievements, but a bit more of an essence, a bit more of a personality," he says. "I try to have people relate to him. I want to bring truth to Novak, what is he thinking? What is he feeling? What would motivate him, if he was a real person?"
The ATP explains the new - hilarious - reveal as such:
“If you thought Novak Djokovic’s tennis career was too good to be true, it turns out you were right. It’s all staged. None of it’s real! He’s just a (very well-paid) actor in ‘The Tour: A Reality Show’. The ATP Tour has revealed today that the global tennis circuit is one big TV show.”
Apparently the joke's been on us for quite some time. At least it's been a wild ride!
The new video, produced to promote the 2024 tennis season, the 52nd in ATP Tour history, is drawing rave reviews on social media. It’s a win for the tour to let its top stars create these laugh out loud moments.
The Tour: A Reality Show | The BIGGEST Secret in Tennis runs just over five minutes and features cameos from Murray, Djokovic, Frances Tiafoe, Casper Ruud, Carlos Alcaraz, Stan Wawrinka, Gael Monfils, Dominic Thiem, Andrey Rublev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Hubert Hurkacz, Craig Boynton, Grigor Dimitrov, Juncheng Shang and Holger Rune.
“We just try to make everything real, and the viewers seem to love it,” the actor known as Fraser McKnight concludes, as the cameras pan to Bert Critchley tearing his Lacoste T off in the bathroom.
Watch it, you won’t regret it.