Murray had been complaining of a rash on his backside over dinner prompting his mother in law to offer to cast her eye over the blemished region.

Speaking after a straight-sets win over Malek Jaziri in the opening round of the Dubai Duty Free Championships, Murray said he was given little choice but to drop his trousers.

After inspection, she diagnosed the tennis star with shingles.  

"I had a little bit of a rash from my bum round to my stomach,” Murray said.

Murray's wife watches on at a recent match. 

"It wasn't terrible. Normally if you have a little bit of a rash and you scratch it it feels better. With that it was really, really painful.

"I didn't think much of it at the beginning, but it was actually my wife's mum (who diagnosed it).

"We were having dinner and I said 'this is really irritating me' and she was like 'pull your pants down and show me, it might be shingles' and I was like 'okay'.

"And then the next day I got the doctor and she was right."

Murray downed  Malek Jaziri 6-4 6-2 and will now face Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

Murray's mother-in-law is Leonore Sears.