Saturday, April 9, 2011

Andy Murray’s April Fools’ Day joke was surprisingly successful

Andy Murray accomplished one of the rarest feats on the Internet on Friday: He made people believe his April Fools' Day joke.

The British No. 1 split with Alex Corretja earlier this week and rumors had been flying that he was going to bring in a new coach. Rumor said it would be Ivan Lendl or Tim Henman or Tony Roche or Jimmy Connors or a close friend. If you were once associated with tennis and currently had no coaching gig, chances are your name has been mentioned in the Murray search.

So when the 23-year-old revealed early Friday that he'd be announcing his new coach at 2 p.m. Miami time, the tennis world waited with bated breath. Well, some did. Others, like myself, who've spent the whole day avoiding made-up news stories about Andre Agassi returning to tennis and Christopher Nolan leaving "The Dark Knight Rises" were more skeptical (but not completely dismissive).

That's the problem with April Fool's Day on the Internet. If there's a story that's within the realm of possibility, then you can't dismiss it out of hand. Murray does need a new coach. For his own sake, he should be close to choosing one. Though it was highly unlikely he'd have announced it during the Novak Djokovic-Mardy Fish match (he's not Justine Henin, after all) on April Fools' Day, there was the slightest chance that it may have been true.

The "announcement" left little doubt about its validity:

Ross Hutchins is a 25-year-old British doubles player. This didn't matter to some news outlets, who reported Murray's Tweet as fact. You'd think they'd have figured out the gag after Murray's follow-up Tweet:

The first gag was alright, but that Tweet was excellent. Murray may be too self-aware for his own good sometimes but at least he's got a sense of humor about it.

For reasons like this, April Fools' Day is the worst day to work on the Internet. At least the gullibility of some made it almost-tolerable this year.

Erika Christensen Emilie de Ravin Tara Reed Avril Lavigne Bridget Moynahan

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