Andy Murray

Andy Murray

Country (sports)	Template:GBR4 Scotland,
Residence	Dunblane, Scotland
Height	1.9 m (6 ft 3 in)
Turned pro	2005
Plays	Right; Two-handed backhand
Prize money	US $1,442,086
Singles
Career record	77-40
Career titles	2
Highest ranking	No. 10 (April 16, 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.

"Andy Murray" redirects here. For other people named Andy or Andrew Murray, see Andrew Murray.

Andrew "Andy" Murray (born 15 May 1987 in Glasgow), is a Scottish tennis player, who has represented both Scotland and Great Britain in past matches. He has been noted for his frequent outbursts of passion and his natural talent.

Murray is currently the UK's best ranked player, with a current world ranking of 10, his highest ever, set up after Haas was unable to defend points at Houston (April 2007), becoming the first player from Great Britain to be in the top 10 since the summer of 2005. 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 the UK's best ranked doubles player.

Murray is now 190 cm tall, having grown an additional 3cm during 2006 and uses an exceptional double-handed backhand. He is currently coached by Brad Gilbert. Murray is also good friends with fellow tennis player Novak Đoković.

Early life

Murray was a former pupil of Dunblane Primary School between 1992 to 1999. He was eight years old and in Primary Three when the Dunblane Massacre devastated the school, resulting in the deaths of a teacher and her 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.

2005 tennis season

Considered 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.

Stepping up to the seniors

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 an ATP International Series Gold clay-court event in Barcelona, his adopted home town. He lost in the first round to Jan Hernych. In May, he played a Challenger in Dresden, winning his first round in straight sets 6-3 6-3, and losing his second to an almost identical scoreline, 6-4 6-3. Neither matches were against notable opposition.

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. There he beat Santiago Ventura and highly-rated American Taylor Dent in the first and second rounds respectively. In the third round, he lost to sixth seed Thomas Johansson in three sets after collapsing with cramp just two points away from victory.

Wimbledon 2005

Murray was awarded a wildcard for Wimbledon. He went into his first senior grand slam match at Wimbledon 2005 ranked 374th in the world, beating George Bastl - ranked over 150 places above him - in straight sets. In his second round match he beat the fourteenth seed Radek Štěpánek, also in straight sets, a match he had been widely expected to lose. 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, but he showed visible signs of fatigue in the fourth and fifth sets. This match was one of several incidents that led to comments about his physical condition and ability to last long matches, something predicted to improve with age and training.

During the tournament he also managed to get Henman Hill christened as Murray Mound/Mount and Murrayfield (in reference to Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh) due to his performances, 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."

US Hardcourts

Murray set off to another grass court tournament, the Hall of Fame Championships, Rhode Island - a title won in 2004 and 2005 by Murray's Davis Cup teammate Greg Rusedski. The promising youngster got a wild card to this event. He reached the last 16 before being defeated by Anthony Dupuis. He then went on to win the Aptos, California Challenger Series hardcourt event without dropping a set, beating American Rajeev Ram in the final. He followed up claiming his first title by competing in the RCA Championship International Series event where he gained a wild card entry. He defeated American Jesse Witten 6-4 6-2 in the first round and lost to seeded American Mardy Fish in the second round. He continued to perform well in Challengers, with quarter-final appearances at Granby and Vancouver before taking his second title in Binghamton.

A wildcard afforded him entry to the Cincinnati ATP Master Series event where he again caused an upset by defeating the big-serving American, Taylor Dent. However, in his first match against a top-10 ranked opponent, Marat Safin proved too strong, beating Murray 6-4 1-6 6-1. Still, an improved ranking of 122 was his reward. His goal was to enter the world top 100 by the end of the year.

US Open 2005

Andrew Murray did not receive a Wildcard entry for the 2005 US Open and so had to play the qualifying tournament. He succeeded and played his first match in the US Open 2005 on Tuesday 30th August. His opponent was the Romanian Andrei Pavel, a former top-15 player. It was a close match, with Murray winning the first set, then Pavel winning the second and third, with Murray then going on to win a fourth. In the early stages of the fifth set, Murray complained of being in pain and he suddenly vomited on the court, to the surprise of the audience. There was a 21 minute break as Murray left the court and the court was made suitable for play. Murray then returned and it began to look like Pavel was creeping back into the game after Murray's illness. However, Murray quickly regained his stride and won the final set. He played the second round on Friday, 2nd September against the Frenchman, Arnaud Clement. Many predicted Murray would win, but at first it seemed very unlikely, as he was 2 sets down. Murray later went on to win the 3rd and 4th set. But again, injury affected him and he received a slight injury in his leg. He went on to lose the 5th set 6-0. This was a blow to Murray, as he would have ascended into the top 100 rankings for the first time in his life if he had won that match. However, he still increased his ranking greatly from its previous number.

Thailand Open

On the 29th September he finally reached the top 100, when he beat Robin Soderling in the Thailand Open. He then defeated Robby Ginepri, recent semi-finalist at Flushing Meadows. He reached his first ATP final by beating home favourite Paradorn Srichaphan in the semi-finals. He lost to World no.1 Roger Federer in the final. His world ranking rose to #72.

Ethias Trophy

Murray then flew back from Asia to fulfill a commitment made to the Ethias Trophy, an indoor Challenger event in Mons, Belgium, where he was given 7th seeding in a 32-man event. After straight-sets wins over Ivo Heuberger of Switzerland and Gregory Carraz of France (during which the match suffered a 49 minute delay due to lighting failure), he met top-50 ranked Belgian Xavier Malisse in the third round.

In the match itself, Murray lost a close first set 7-5, before he pulled his left hamstring, and while the injury was not serious (his physician later said that he expected it to keep him out for no more than a fortnight), Murray decided to withdraw from the match.

Davidoff Swiss Indoors, Basel

Murray returned from a short injury layoff to play at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in Basel. Murray was drawn in the first round against British No.1 Tim Henman, who was seeded sixth for the tournament, a match that attracted a great deal of media attention in the UK as it was the first time the two had met in professional competition and was seen as a changing of eras for British tennis. Murray won a tight match 6-2 5-7 7-6 (7-4), the match being screened live on BBC Two television in the UK, which would never normally have occurred for such a comparatively minor tournament. He then followed this up by winning his second round match against eventual Paris TMS champion, Tomáš Berdych (CZE), 6-4 2-6 6-4. He was defeated in the quarter-finals by fourth seed Fernando González (CHI), 4-6 6-3 1-6.

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, but was unable to continue his good form. 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.

Wimbledon saw a dramatic return to form, as Murray reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time, only to lose in straight sets to Marcos Baghdatis. Further success followed, as he reached the semi-finals 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, the first time that Murray had successfully fought back to win a five-set match.

Murray's improved form continued into the autumn. He reached the semi-final of the Toronto Masters, losing to Richard Gasquet after surviving several close shaves which led to the questioning of his ability to close out games. In the next tournament, the Cincinnati Masters, his loss to Andy Roddick in the quarter-finals was overshadowed by his earlier defeat of 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 once again reach the fourth round, only to lose 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.

The final set of tournaments in 2006 led to mixed results. The disappointment of losing to Tim Henman in the first round of the Thailand Open (where he had reached the final the year before) was alleviated somewhat by reaching the final of the doubles, partnered by his brother. At the Madrid Masters an impressive defeat of number 3 seed Ivan Ljubičić was followed by a loss to Novak Đoković in the round of 16. In his final tournament of the year, the Paris Masters, Murray beat Chela, but lost in the next round to Dominik Hrbaty. At the end of the year, Murray was ranked 17th in the world, and was looking to break into the top 10 in 2007.

2007

• Qatar ExxonMobile Open, Doha - In the first round Murray, seeded 4th and suffering from a cold struggled past Filippo Volandri (4-6 6-2 6-4) before making quick work of Christophe Rochus (6-1 6-3) in the second round. In the quarter-finals Murray had to battle back against Max Mirnyi to win (2-6 6-2 6-2) before going on to defeat the #1 seed Nikolay Davydenko (7-5 6-2) in the semi-finals. In the final he lost in straight sets (6-4, 6-4) to #2 seed Ivan Ljubičić.

• Australian Open, Melbourne - Murray was seeded 15 for this event, his highest seeding in 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 second round, he beat Fernado Verdasco 7(7)-6(4), 7-5, 6-4. A hard fought win against Juan Ignacio Chela in the third round, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, set up the first match between Murray and Rafael Nadal in the 4th round. 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).Murray showed signs of physical fatigue in the later sets and committed too many unforced errors, while Nadal's superior physical conditioning and consistent stroke play gave him the edge. However, Murray's potential was there for the world to see. After the match Murray stated that it was the best performance of his career.

• SAP Open, San Jose - Murray successfully defended the title he won last year, beating Ivo Karlovic 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.

• Regions Morgan Keegan Championships, Memphis - Murray progressed into the semi-finals of this competition, beating Kristian Pless 6-3 7-6 (7-4) in the second round, and defeating Stefan Koubek 6-3 6-2 in the last eight. He lost to Andy Roddick in the semi-finals 3-6 6-7(4-7).

• Pacific Life Open - Murray made his way into the quarter finals after an impressive 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 victory over number four seed 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.

• Sony Ericsson Open (Miami Masters) - Murray moved into the fourth round after defeating both Paul Goldstein and Robert Kendrick in straight sets. Here he met Paul-Henri Mathieu for the first time in his career. Mathieu took the first set and broke again early in the second. After Murray saved match points on both his own, and then Mathieu's serve, he broke twice to take the set. Murray broke again in the final set and took the match 2-6 7-5 6-3. In the quarter final, he met Andy Roddick for the third time this year, but the American retired due to injury at 3-5 in the first to give Murray a second consecutive Masters semi-final berth. Unfortunately for Murray a dismal display in his semi-final against Novak Đoković 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.

• Into the top 10 - 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.

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 Clement	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	Jamie Murray	Jonathan Erlich & Andy Ram	6-2 2-6 10-4

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 Miami Masters in Florida, which ended on April 1, 2007.

Tournament	2005	2006	2007	Career SR	Career win-loss
Australian Open	A	1R	4R	0 / 2	3-2
French Open	A	1R		0 / 1	0-1
Wimbledon	3R	4R		0 / 2	5-2
U.S. Open	2R	4R		0 / 2	4-2
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		0 / 1	0-1
Hamburg Masters	A	2R		0 / 1	1-1
Canada Masters	A	SF		0 / 1	4-1
Cincinnati Masters	2R	QF		0 / 2	4-2
Madrid Masters (Stuttgart)	A	3R		0 / 1	2-1
Paris Masters	A	3R		0 / 1	1-1
ATP Tournaments Played	10	26	6	N/A	42
ATP Final Appearances	1	2	2	N/A	5
ATP Titles	0	1	1	N/A	2
Hardcourt Win-Loss	7-4	26-14	23-5	N/A	56-23
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	0-0	N/A	4-7
Overall Win-Loss	14-10	40-25	23-5	N/A	77-40
Year End Ranking	63	17		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: In 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

Murray is known for his frequently petulant behaviour. When playing in Davis Cup doubles with Greg Rusedski, against Nenad Zimonjic and Ilia 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 pre-watershed. 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 Australia, 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.

A lot has been made about 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