Andy Murray

Andy Murray

File:Andy-Murray.jpg
Country (sports)	Great Britain Scotland,
Residence	Dunblane, Scotland, United Kingdom
Height	1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Turned pro	2005
Plays	Right; Two-handed backhand
Prize money	US $1,450,836
Singles
Career record	78-42
Career titles	2
Highest ranking	No. 8 (June 18, 2007)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	4th Round (2007)
French Open	1st Round (2006)
Wimbledon	4th Round (2006)
US Open	4th Round (2006)
Doubles
Career record	13-19
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 89 (April 2, 2007)
Last updated on: April 2, 2007.

Andrew "Andy" Murray (born 15 May 1987 in Glasgow), is a Scottish tennis player, who is currently the highest-ranking British player. As of August 20, 2007, Murray has a current world ranking of #19. In December 2005, he won the BBC Scotland Sports Personality of the Year Award, and the sport section of the Top Scot awards. His elder brother Jamie is Great Britain's best ranked doubles player.

Murray is coached by Brad Gilbert.

Early life

Murray was a former pupil of Dunblane Primary School between 1992 to 1999. He was eight years old and in Primary Four when the Dunblane Massacre devastated the school, resulting in the deaths of a teacher and sixteen Primary One pupils. Murray, however, says he was shielded from the aftermath of the tragedy and, still being a child, wasn't truly aware of what was going on. In 1999, he went on to attend Dunblane High School.

Between the ages of 11 and 13 Murray was a member of the junior tennis team at the Next Generation club in Newhaven, Edinburgh, where he played regularly. At 14 he moved to Barcelona in Spain, where he attended the Schiller International School and trained on the clay courts of the Sanchez-Casal Academy, where he was nicknamed 'Lazy English'. He won the Boys Singles title at the US Open in 2004, and won BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year. He finished his school career in 2005.

Into the limelight

In March 2005, he was called up to play doubles for Great Britain's Davis Cup team to play against Israel, and became Great Britain's youngest ever Davis Cup player in doing so. Murray and David Sherwood produced a surprise win over the Israeli doubles team, who at the time were the World number eight pairing and had reached the Wimbledon semi-final in 2003. This helped Great Britain to a 3-2 victory.

The Scot reached the semi-finals of the Boys' tournament at the French Open, losing to Croatian Marin Cilic, and this would prove to be his last foray into the Junior events at a Grand Slam.

National Identity

In an interview with Gabby Logan for the BBC's Inside Sport programme, Andy said that he was both Scottish and British and was comfortable and happy with his British identity. He said he saw no conflict between the two and was equally proud of them. He also mentioned that while Wimbledon was not his favourite tournament, he loved the support of the British fans.

2005 tennis season

Considered to be Murray's breakthrough year, almost all of his ATP tour results have come on hard and grass courts, though he has claimed to prefer clay courts, a liking tied to his training in Barcelona as a junior.

Maiden year as a professional

Prior to the Junior French Open in April, Murray turned professional and played his first senior tournament when he was given a wild card to the ATP Open SEAT clay-court event in Barcelona, his adopted home town. He lost in the first round to Jan Hernych.

The Barcelona Tournament gave Murray his first senior ranking point, and he was soon handed a second wild card for the Stella Artois championship at Queens. He progressed to the third-round but retired due to cramp.

Murray was awarded a wildcard for Wimbledon. He went into his first senior grand slam ranked 374th in the world, but managed to produce a major upset by defeating fourteenth seed Radek Štěpánek in straight sets. He was the first Scottish person in the Open era to reach round three at Wimbledon, and was the only Briton remaining in the men's or ladies' singles championship. Murray's run in Wimbledon 2005 came to an end when he was beaten by David Nalbandian after leading by two sets to love, when he began showing visible signs of fatigue in the fourth and fifth sets. During the tournament his performances saw Henman Hill re-christened as Murray Mound/Mount and Murrayfield (a reference to Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh) , and Henmania became 'Andymonium' - but whether these names will stick is unknown.

Mark Petchey, who had been coaching Murray through the early part of that grass court season was then confirmed as the player's full time coach, Murray stating:

"I'm so pleased to have Mark as my coach, I respect him a great deal. He has helped me massively over the last few weeks and I am excited to work with him moving forward."

He began the U.S. hardcourt season by winning his first title at the Aptos, California Challenger Series hardcourt event without dropping a set. A wildcard afforded him entry to the Cincinnati Masters event where he played his first match against a top-ten player, Marat Safin, in the second-round. Murray lost the match, 6-4, 1-6, 6-1.

Murray was ranked #122 in the world and had to qualify for the U.S. Open. He was able to reach the second-round, playing two five-set matches. On the 29th September he finally reached the top 100, when he beat Robin Soderling in the Thailand Open. He reached his first ATP final by beating home favourite Paradorn Srichaphan in the semi-finals but lost to World no.1 Roger Federer in the final. His world ranking rose to #72.

Murray returned from a short injury layoff to play at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors. He was drawn in the first-round against British number one Tim Henman, with this tie being first time the two had met in professional competition. Murray defeated Henman, 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(4).

2006

Murray began the 2006 season with second round exits in two tournaments, followed by a first round loss to Juan Ignacio Chela in his first Australian Open appearance. The SAP Open which followed brought him his first ATP title, as Murray beat two former world number 1's in the form of Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt. He reached the quarter-finals in his next tournament in Memphis. He lost in the first round of six of the next nine tournaments he played in, including first round exits at the French Open and at Queen's Club. During this run, Murray unsuccessfully partnered Greg Rusedski in Great Britain's Davis Cup tie, after missing the singles through injury.

At Wimbledon Murray reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time, before losing in straight sets to Marcos Baghdatis. He reached the semi-final and final of the next two tournaments he entered (the Hall of Fame Championships in Newport and the Legg Mason Classic in Washington, respectively). In between, he won a singles match against Andy Ram in the Davis Cup tie with Israel.

Murray reached the semi-final of the Toronto Masters, losing to Richard Gasquet. In the next tournament, the Cincinnati Masters, he lost to Andy Roddick in the quarter-finals after earlier defeating world number 1, Roger Federer. Murray was one of only two players to beat Federer in 2006, the other being Rafael Nadal. The final grand slam of the year, the US Open, saw Murray reach the fourth round, before losing to the seeded Nikolay Davydenko in four sets. This was followed by his final Davis Cup appearance for the year, in which he won both singles rubbers in straight sets and lost the doubles en route to a British victory over the Ukraine, which ensured the team's continued presence in group 1 of the Europe/Africa zone for 2007.

In the final set of tournaments in 2006 he lost to Tim Henman in the first round of the Thailand Open (where he had reached the final the year before) He reached the final of the doubles, partnered by his brother. At the Madrid Masters, he defeated number 3 seed Ivan Ljubičić before losing to Novak Đoković in the round of 16. In his final tournament of the year, the Paris Masters, Murray beat Chela, and lost in the next round to Dominik Hrbaty. At the end of the year, Murray was ranked 17th in the world.

2007

At the Australian Open, Murray's first Grand Slam of the calender year, he was seeded 15th (his highest seeding for a Grand Slam event). In his first round match he beat Alberto Martín of Spain 6-0, 6-0, 6-1, which equalled the largest-ever victory at the Australian Open, in the Open Era, which began in 1968. In the fourth round Murray faced Rafael Nadal for the first time in his career. After leading by 2 sets to 1, Murray lost in 5 sets to Nadal, (6(3)-7(7), 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1). After the match Murray stated that it was the best performance of his career.

San Jose Murray successfully defended his San Jose title, beating Ivo Karlović 6-7 (3-7) 6-4 7-6 (7-2) in a closely fought final. His brother, Jamie also won the doubles title. The Murrays became the first brothers to win the singles and doubles titles at the same event since Emilio and Javier Sánchez at Kitzbühel in 1989.

At the Indian Wells Masters event Murray made his way into the quarter finals after a 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 victory over number four seed Nikolay Davydenko. He then proceeded to save two match points and recover from a serious fall, in which he injured his ankle and hip, and bounce back to beat German Tommy Haas to progress to the semi-finals, winning 3-6 6-3 7-6(8). He could not make it to the final though, hampered by the injury he sustained in the quarter final against Tommy Haas, he lost 6-2, 6-3 to Novak Đoković. Despite the loss, he rose to a career high ranking of 12th in the world. A week later, at the Miami Masters faced Novak Đoković again, and an abysmal saw him crash out 6-1, 6-0. It was later revealed that Murray had been injured in training the day before and was a doubt for the Davis Cup tie the following week. However, he did rise to a career high ranking of 11th in the world.

On Friday April 13th Murray clinched the 10th place position in the world after the former #10 Tommy Haas failed to reach the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships semi-finals in Houston.

After the Hamburg Masters, where Murray was forced to abandon in the first set of his first round match against Italian Filippo Volandri due to a wrist injury, he announced that he was forced to withdraw his participation to the 2007 French Open. Shortly after this, he announced that he would not be able to take part in the tournament of Queen's, the preparatory tournament to The Championships, Wimbledon. He announced that he could not take part in Wimbledon either. Murray rose to #8 in the world even though he was inactive, because other players failed to defend points. After missing Wimbledon and several other tournaments, he dropped to World Number 14.

Murray made comeback at the Rogers Cup in Montréal, three months after sustaining the wrist injury and lost in the second round to World Number 139 Fabio Fognini 6-2, 6-2. The following week at Cincinnati Murray lost in the opening round to Marcos Baghdatis 6-1 6-2 and hence fell to World Number 19.

Titles (2)

Titles won Grand Slam (0) Tennis Masters Cup (0) ATP Masters Series (0) ATP Tour (2)

Singles (2)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	19 February, 2006	San Jose, United States	Hard	Lleyton Hewitt	2-6 6-1 7-6(7-3)
2.	18 February, 2007	San Jose, United States	Hard	Ivo Karlović	6-7(3-7) 6-4 7-6(7-2)

Runner-ups (4)

Singles (3)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	1 October, 2005	Bangkok, Thailand	Indoor	Roger Federer	6-3, 7-5
2.	6 August, 2006	Washington, United States	Hard	Arnaud Clément	7-6(4), 6-2
3.	6 January, 2007	Doha, Qatar	Hard	Ivan Ljubičić	6-4, 6-4

Doubles (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	1 October, 2006	Bangkok, Thailand	Indoor Hard	Jamie Murray	Jonathan Erlich & Andy Ram	2-6 6-2 4-10

Performance timeline

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through the French Open, which ended on June 10, 2007.

Tournament	2005	2006	2007	Career SR	Career win-loss
Australian Open	A	1R	4R	0 / 2	3-2
French Open	A	1R	A	0 / 1	0-1
Wimbledon	3R	4R	A	0 / 2	5-2
U.S. Open	2R	4R	3R	0 / 3	6-3
Grand Slam SR	0 / 2	0 / 4	0 / 1	0 / 7	N/A
Grand Slam Win-Loss	3-2	6-4	3-1	N/A	12-7
Tennis Masters Cup	A	A		0 / 0	0-0
Indian Wells Masters	A	2R	SF	0 / 2	5-2
Miami Masters	A	1R	SF	0 / 2	4-2
Monte Carlo Masters	A	1R	A	0 / 1	0-1
Rome Masters	A	1R	1R	0 / 2	0-2
Hamburg Masters	A	2R	1R	0 / 2	1-2
Canada Masters	A	SF	2R	0 / 2	5-2
Cincinnati Masters	2R	QF	1R	0 / 3	4-3
Madrid Masters (Stuttgart)	A	3R		0 / 1	2-1
Paris Masters	A	3R		0 / 1	1-1
ATP Tournaments Played	10	26	7	N/A	43
ATP Final Appearances	1	2	2	N/A	5
ATP Titles	0	1	1	N/A	2
Hardcourt Win-Loss	7-4	26-14	25-7	N/A	58-25
Grass Win-Loss	5-3	9-4	0-0	N/A	14-7
Carpet Win-Loss	2-1	1-2	0-0	N/A	3-3
Clay Win-Loss	0-2	4-5	0-2	N/A	4-9
Overall Win-Loss	14-10	40-25	24-9	N/A	78-44
Year End Ranking	63	17	N/A	N/A	N/A

• A = did not participate in the tournament.
• SR = the ratio of the number of singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.

N.B: At the Monte Carlo Masters 2007, Murray participated in a set of the doubles tournament, however had to pull out because his back was spasming. Murray therefore had to pull out of the singles tournament before it had begun, and he was replaced by a lucky loser.

Controversy

As he climbed into the top 100 players, Murray gained a reuptation of being "petulant" with the media . When playing in Davis Cup doubles with Greg Rusedski, against Nenad Zimonjić and Ilija Bozoljac, Murray incurred a $2,500 fine for abusing the umpire with extreme language. His words were over a line call which was caught on microphone and televised live. As it was initially thought that Murray would be excluded from the team, the fine was a relief to fans. In his response he said, "We got an absolute shocker and I told the umpire how bad he was." and did not offer any apology.

Prior to 2006 Wimbledon, Murray caused some public debate with comments against the England national football team, stating that he would like to see "anyone except England" win. He received large amounts of hate mail on his website as a result. However, at a later date, Murray explained that his comments were said in jest in response to provocation from an English reporter who had asked him if he'd be supporting Scotland in the World Cup knowing full well that Scotland had not qualified for the tournament. Murray also, after his win against Andy Roddick at Wimbledon 2006, expressed disappointment over England's loss in their match against Portugal at the 2006 World Cup.

After winning a match at the Heineken Open in Auckland, Murray describing his match to an on-court reporter stated that "we were both playing like women", Murray later said he just meant there were lots of breaks of serves.

Some have questioned Murray's physical fitness. At his Queens Club debut when he first came to light, he pulled up during a match and lay on the ground for several minutes in agony, from what was later revealed to be cramp. Murray has struggled in Best of 5 Set Grand Slam matches and, in many smaller events, often becomes very lethargic in the latter stages of long matches. People close to Murray's camp say that he dislikes endurance training and much prefers to spend time playing PlayStation, watching his favourite football team Hibernian and spending time with his girlfriend. New coach Brad Gilbert, known for his expertise as a coach in guiding American tennis greats Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick to Grand Slam wins, has had significant impact on Murray in terms of confidence and has arranged matches with childhood idol Agassi as a shining example of how important commitment to training and fitness are to achieving title-winning performances on a regular basis.

External links

• Official site
• Fan site
• Andy Murray at the Association of Tennis Professionals