Andy Murray backs Scottish independence

Andy Murray broke his silence on the Scottish independence referendum just a few hours before polling stations opened in Scotland on Thursday. Born in Scotland

Andy Murray broke his silence on the Scottish independence referendum just a few hours before polling stations opened in Scotland on Thursday. Born in Scotland and having competed for Great Britain throughout his career, Murray sent out a tweet backing independence.

Huge day for Scotland today! no campaign negativity last few days totally swayed my view on it. excited to see the outcome. lets do this!

— Andy Murray (@andy_murray) September 18, 2014

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Murray, who won Olympic gold and silver for Great Britain, can't actually vote in the referendum because he lives in England. This may have been his attempt to do what he could to sway the vote absent a trip to the ballot box. If Scotland does achieve independence, Murray will compete for Scotland at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Murray admitted he was following the debates closely at the U.S. Open but initially refused to comment.

"I haven't thought that much about that yet because I don't think it's looking too likely that it's going to happen," Murray said last month. "But if it did happen, then it would be pretty much the first time in my life that I would have ever -- ever since I started traveling to tournaments since I was 11 years old, always played under Great Britain, always traveled to team events or overseas, and we were always under Great Britain. That's normal to me."