{"id":766102,"date":"2026-06-28T04:37:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T04:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/766102\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T04:37:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T04:37:44","slug":"can-andy-and-jamie-murray-make-a-tennis-racket-in-an-increasingly-crowded-youtube-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/766102\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Andy and Jamie Murray make a tennis racket in an increasingly crowded YouTube space?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The most convincing display of tennis in the first episode of a new YouTube channel<\/a> from two people with 10 Grand Slam titles between them comes from an 11-year-old, who appears for little more than a minute. And that\u2019s the whole point.<\/p>\n

Three-time Grand Slam singles champion Andy Murray<\/a>, and his brother, seven-time Grand Slam doubles champion Jamie, spend the opening episode of \u201cThe Set\u201d trying to teach YouTube star KSI<\/a> how to play tennis. Joshua Lotsu, a county player from Surrey, England, is KSI\u2019s final obstacle on his one-day journey into being a pro. At Wimbledon, the Murrays ask KSI to try to return one of Lotsu\u2019s serves.<\/p>\n

KSI has three shots. He returns none. The 33 year old, whose real name is Olajide Olatunji, takes the defeat well, which is for the best given that Lotsu is still at primary school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Set,\u201d which released its first episode Friday, is the latest in a growing collection of channels created by leading tennis players seeking a creative outlet<\/a> \u2014 and control of how they present their stories and selves to the world at large.<\/p>\n

Serena and Venus Williams are reuniting at Wimbledon<\/p>\n

Ava Wallace<\/p>\n

Some, like Daria Kasatkina and Natalia Zabiiako\u2019s \u201cWhat The Vlog,\u201d document tour life through personal video diaries. Others arrive with agencies, sponsors and production companies attached. The Murrays\u2019 version, produced with Prodigy Studios and IMG Tennis belongs firmly to the latter category, alongside the likes of women\u2019s world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s \u201cAryna\u2019s Arena,\u201d which is produced by Hana Kuma, the media company co-founded by Sabalenka\u2019s fellow four-time major champion (and agency peer) Naomi Osaka.<\/p>\n

Men\u2019s world No. 1 Jannik Sinner recently launched a channel which is somewhere in between; Britain\u2019s Jack Draper started one to document his recovery from a long-term elbow injury alongside sponsor Vuori, while Ben Shelton\u2019s \u201cThe Long Game\u201d adds a documentary sheen to his life on tour.<\/p>\n

The wider sports industry has been moving in the same direction for much longer. A 2025 study by USC Annenberg identified 33 athlete-owned production companies responsible for more than 370 films, television programmes, podcasts and digital series.<\/p>\n

LeBron James\u2019 SpringHill Company (NBA), Peyton Manning\u2019s Omaha Productions, the Kelce brothers\u2019 New Heights (NFL) and Bryson De Chambeau\u2019s YouTube channel (golf)<\/a> offer different versions of athletes building media businesses around their voices.<\/p>\n

For the Murrays, the distinction is largely about separating themselves from a tennis punditry landscape that they have described as feeling somewhat safe. Andy, 39, retired in 2024<\/a>. Jamie, 40, who retired in April,\u00a0has a foot in both worlds, combining \u201cThe Set\u201d with a place on the BBC\u2019s Wimbledon punditry team. One brother is taking an alternative to the established path, while the other is testing whether traditional broadcasting and athlete-controlled media can coexist.<\/p>\n

The debut begins promisingly. \u201cThis is KSI, one of the world\u2019s most talented YouTubers,\u201d Andy says. \u201cBut when it comes to tennis, he absolutely sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n

KSI usually comes off as the leading man, whether the content in question is his own, a group effort or a collaboration like this one. Here, Andy makes a spirited attempt to meet him halfway, no small development for a player sometimes wrongly perceived as treating words as something to be rationed.<\/p>\n

Jamie leads most of the drills, feeding KSI balls and keeping the episode moving, while his younger brother supplies the sharper lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure you could afford your own racket, so we brought you one,\u201d Andy tells KSI.<\/p>\n

Forbes estimated that KSI earned $23.9 million in 2023<\/a> alone. That was more than three times Jamie\u2019s $7.1 million in career prize money<\/a> and more than a third of Andy\u2019s $64.7 million,<\/a> although the figures do not include sponsorships, investments or other business interests.<\/p>\n

When it comes to tennis, the brothers hold all the cards.<\/p>\n

Before picking up a racket, KSI says he is \u201cworking on\u201d his tennis knowledge. He then fails to recognise Roger Federer, mistakes Serena Williams for her sister Venus, identifies Rafael Nadal as Novak Djokovic and decides that a photograph of Will Smith is also Nadal. Some of the ignorance is clearly part of the act and KSI knows how to make failure entertaining. It largely works, because\u00a0the Murrays bring Wimbledon and the credibility of two former world No. 1s, and KSI brings a vast audience and the instincts of a career entertainer.<\/p>\n

The coaching itself is less developed. Jamie conducts most of the session, but Andy is the only brother heard offering much specific technical advice, and even he is not heard particularly often. The technical high point comes from Lotsu, a tennis scholar who has competed in county squads and reached the final of a national under-10 event.<\/p>\n

KSI finds the prospect of facing an 11-year-old amusing until the first serve passes him. The next two do the same.<\/p>\n

Nobody seriously expects KSI to become a professional player one day and \u2014 of course \u2014 the entertainment lies in discovering exactly how far short he falls.<\/p>\n

KSI spent more than 12 years with football content group the Sidemen, helping turn a group of friends making gaming videos into a large entertainment and consumer business. On May 31, he announced that he would no longer appear in Sidemen videos, saying he wanted more room for his health, his partner and his family. In this episode of \u201cThe Set,\u201d a creator who has now formally moved away from the collective that shaped much of his career helps two brothers establish a media identity of their own, though at times, KSI\u2019s greater familiarity with the medium means he overshadows the Murrays as hosts.<\/p>\n

A more interesting future for The Set may lie away from teaching celebrities, with Andy and Jamie examining old matches, explaining tactical decisions, exploring the differences between singles and doubles and disagreeing about a sport they believe television treats too cautiously.<\/p>\n

The platform will give them the chance to make something less vanilla, and the debut shows that they have the personalities to do it. What it does not yet show is whether they are willing to move beyond a YouTube formula which is as tried-and-tested as play-by-play commentary is in tennis: Inviting an established creator on and allowing the guest to become the star of the episode.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The most convincing display of tennis in the first episode of a new YouTube channel from two people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,569,82,575,593],"class_list":["post-766102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-culture","tag-sports","tag-sports-business","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}