ANDY Murray has defended fiancee Kim Sears over what appeared to be an expletive-laden directed at his semi-final opponent Tomas Berdych.

The Scots tennis ace, who secured his place in Sunday's Australian Open final after defeating Berdych in four sets, said: "In the heat of the moment you can say stuff that you regret."

Sears was caught on camera apparently swearing as tensions boiled over during a tetchy first set with Berdych serving at 5-3.

Sears appeared to repeatedly use the f-word in a rant against Murray's Czech opponent as the Scot broke back to save the set and make it 5-4. However, Murray went on to lose the first set.

The footage sparked a media frenzy over what Sears actually said, but the 27-year-old artist got the backing of former British number one Anne Keothavong, who tweeted: "Forget how big the diamond is; this is what true love is made of."

The victory marks a return to form for the former world number two, who was last in a Grand Slam final when he won Wimbledon in 2013.

Since then his ranking has dipped to number six in the world as he admitted struggling with his motivation after the historic triumph. He has also had to adjust to the departure of coach Ivan Lendl, credited with moulding the mental toughness which led him to both his Wimbledon and US Open victories.

This year's Australian Open final - the fourth of Murray's career - is his first Grand Slam final since recruiting French former tennis champion Amelie Mauresmo as his new coach.

In a post-match interview he thanked her and defended his decision to hire a female coach.

He said: "A lot of people criticised me working with her, and I think so far this week we've shown that women can be very good coaches as well.

"I'm very thankful for Amelie for doing it. It was I would say a brave choice from her to do it."

Meanwhile, political leaders at Holyrood joked that the weekly First Minister's Questions should be postponed to allow MSPs to watch yesterday's semi-final.

Nicola Sturgeon joked "I'm sure we could come to some arrangement" after Tory leader Ruth Davidson wrote on Twitter that she was in a dilemma over whether to watch the tennis or prepare for her weekly clash with the SNP leader.

Labour deputy leader Kezia Dugdale, who fronts FMQs for her party, also got in on the act, tweeting: "Yes, there in a minute, looking for the Pimms".