Andy Murray back in Basel for first time in 17 years and remembers becoming item with wife Kim on MSN Messenger

Andy Murray will play at the Swiss Indoors in Basel for the first time in 17 years and has recalled his last visit to the tournament, when he became an item with his wife Kim.

Andy Murray and his wife Kim Sears - the two became a couple in 2005.

Murray, who is currently ranked No 49 in the world, begins his campaign in Basel on Tuesday when he takes on Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin in the first round. It will be only the 35-year-old’s second appearance at the event in Switzerland, his one and only other time coming in 2005, beating Tim Henman en route to the quarter-finals before losing to Fernando Gonzalez.

Then an 18-year-old just beginning his career on the ATP Tour, Murray was asked by Tennis TV to recall what life was like back when he was a teenager and he revealed that it was when he and Kim Sears officially became a couple. “I have some memories from that week,” said Murray. “One, it’s actually the week when me and my wife became a couple for the first time. We met at the US Open and then we went on a couple of date since then and I asked the question, when we were in Basel, ‘are we a couple now, like officially?’.

When asked if he took Kim out for a meal at a nice restaurant in Basel, Murray explained: “She didn’t come here. This was done over MSN Messenger, which was how the youngsters communicated in those days!” Andy and Kim then married in 2015 and have four children together.