The match, which was also broadcast live on Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland, was produced in partnership with software company and live-streaming specialists Grabyo in order to reach out to Murray's global audience.

Matty Gentry, of the Wimbledon champion's management firm 77 Group, said: "We are interested in driving innovation around the event and Andy’s social media channels, and viewed this as a good platform to do that.”

Murray has a good track record on social media. Over the years he has hosted witty Q&As on Twitter and Facebook and made a popular impression when commentating on live matches.

Grabyo's chief executive, Gareth Capon, said there has been increasing interest in broadcasting sport on Facebook Live from industry rights holders. 2016 has seen many examples of sporting brands turning their attention to online audiences.

In June, Sky released a pre-recorded virtual reality sequence on Facebook to promote its Tour de France team, featuring the tournament's winning cyclist Chris Froome training in Switzerland. The video has since been watched over 100,000 times.

Earlier this year Twitter won the rights to stream NFL games on Thursday nights. The opening match was watched by 2.3million viewers on the micro-blogging site last month.

The Murray-Dimitrov game, which also featured a doubles match with Jamie Murray and Tim Henman, took place in Glasgow's SSE Hydro venue and raised money for Unicef and Young People's Futures - a local Glaswegian charity.