Murray came close to 'poking out' princess's eye

Andy Murray came perilously close to "poking out the eye" of Britain's Princess Anne in a botched dress rehearsal for Friday's Olympic Games opening ceremony where he will carry the country's flag.

Tennis star Murray, the defending Olympic champion, will lead out the British team in what he describes as one of the proudest moments of his career.

But the 29-year-old admitted that Wednesday night's photo-call with the daughter of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, and other members of the team, could have gone a lot better.

"I ended up putting the flag in front of Princess Anne's face," said the Wimbledon champion.

"The flag is huge and as soon as I tipped it, it was covering someone's face.

"It has a big, sharp point on top of it and she said something like 'make sure you don't poke my eye out'.

"I hope she was OK. I didn't mean to do it. I was just following instructions. Last night didn't go well. I'll have to try and get more practice in before tomorrow."