Andy Murray issues heartfelt message to Rafa Nadal after special French Open tribute

Andy Murray hailed the "amazing" Rafa Nadal after joining his fellow members of the Big Four at a ceremony for the Spanish superstar at Roland Garros.

And the Scot claimed Nadal's record of 14 French Open titles will never be broken. Murray walked out into the packed Court Philippe-Chatrier to huge applause along with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

After video montages and a Nadal speech in French, English and Spanish, tournament organisers unveiled a plaque with the Spaniard's name and the No.14 on the main court.

Murray, who had his own farewell ceremony at Wimbledon last summer, said: "I thought they did it really well. I thought the plaque on the side of the court was brilliant. I think he deserved that.

"It was great for me to be out there with those guys again. I hadn't seen Roger or Rafa for quite a while. Obviously Novak, I have spent some time with him the last few months! But I thought they did a great job. I thought he spoke really, really well too considering going through multiple languages.

"I think at one stage the speech got blown away by the wind. I thought he spoke really, really well. I think with those things, it clearly meant a lot to him and he was really happy with it. I thought it was really good."

Murray had a losing 17-7 record against Nadal, including both their meetings at Roland Garros. During his speech, the Spaniard told his former rivals: "After all these years fighting, it's unbelievable how the time has changed the perspective of everything.

"You don't know yet, Novak, probably Andy knows, but Roger and I have talked about that a couple of times. All these nerves, pressures, strange feelings when you see each other as rivals.

"As rivals, it's completely different when you finish your career. All of us achieved our dreams. We became tennis players, played in important stages of our career, and built an amazing rivalry.

"We showed the world we can fight as hard as possible but in a good way. Be good colleagues and respect each other."

And Murray, who has just turned 38, said: "Me and him had always got on really well since we were kids. Obviously what he went on to achieve was amazing, particularly here.

"People say it all the time with records but I genuinely think that this one, I would be really very, very surprised if that gets broken. It is going to stand the test of time I think. Amazing, amazing player, great guy, great to see him have a proper send off."

The three-time Grand Slam champion ended his five-month coaching stint with Djokovic earlier this month but still travelled to Paris - and dashed to get the last Eurostar home on Sunday night. "Well I was obviously supposed to be coming based on the job with Novak and then, yeah, Amelie asked me last week if I could still make it."