Andy Murray: 'James Ward goes defensive when anyone criticises Arsenal'

Two-time Grand Slam tennis champion Andy Murray has revealed that his Davis Cup teammate James Ward always gets defensive when someone criticises Arsenal.

The 28-year-old, who is a lifelong Arsenal supporter, will team up with Murray, Dom Inglot and Jamie Murray for the Davis Cup quarter-finals against France this week.

To give some insight into Ward's personality off the court, Murray wrote in his BBC Sport column: "I'd say Wardy is pretty quiet when he's in the team room, unless you're talking about football. It's more when Arsenal get brought up, and if anyone says anything negative about them.

"I never understand how as a supporter it's okay to say a certain player is playing so badly, but if someone who supports another team says the same thing they will respond with, 'what are you talking about? He's a great player!' Wardy's like that."

The British quartet will go up against Gilles Simon, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Richard Gasquet and Nicholas Mahut.