Andy Murray: Britain's Tennis Champion Competes with the Best

Britain has finally produced a tennis player that we can be proud of and who can compete with the best. Born in Glasgow on 15 May 1987, Andy Murray (www.andymurray.com) is currently the highest-ranked British player. Murray broke into the official ATP Top 10 (www.atpworldtour.com/) for the first time on 16 April 2007, and reached a career-high of No. 4 after the 2008 U.S. Open, (www.usopen.org) in which he reached the final, losing to Roger Federer. 

His elder brother Jamie is Great Britain's highest ranked doubles player and Murray first picked up a tennis racquet to play Jamie. Murray attributes his abilities to the motivation gained from losing to Jamie, who had been the second-best junior player in the world. He first beat Jamie in an under-12s final in Solihull, afterwards teasing Jamie until his brother hit him hard enough to lose a nail on his left hand.

When playing against Rafael Nadal, who was a year older than Murray, he found out Nadal was training with Carlos Moyà, the world number one. Murray was angry that he had only his brother to practice with, so when he was 15 he moved to Barcelona, Spain, where he attended the Schiller International School and trained on the clay courts of the Sánchez-Casal Academy. Murray described this as "a big sacrifice to move away from your family, and spend money training over there when you're not making any back". His schoolwork was also sacrificed during this period; despite being bright, he left without qualifications.

2005

In 2005, Murray began to make an impact on the main ATP Tour. He came to public attention after reaching the third round at both the Stella Artois championship at Queens and at Wimbledon. Almost all of his ATP tour wins came on hard and grass courts, though he has claimed to prefer clay courts, a liking tied to his training in Barcelona as a junior.

In March 2005, he was called up to play doubles for the Great Britain's Davis Cup team against Israel, and became the youngest ever Briton to play in the Davis Cup. Murray and David Sherwood produced a surprise win over the Israeli doubles team. This helped the Great Britain team to a 3–2 victory.

Murray was awarded a wildcard for Wimbledon in 2005.  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. In 2006 at Wimbledon, Murray reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time, after defeating third seed Roddick in the third round. His run was then ended with a straight-sets loss to Marcos Baghdatis.

2006

Murray went on to reach the semi-finals of the Canada Masters, losing to Richard Gasquet. In the next tournament, the Cincinnati Masters, he lost to Andy Roddick in the quarter-finals after earlier defeating the then world number 1, Roger Federer. Murray was one of only two players to beat Federer in 2006, the other being Rafael Nadal. At the end of the year, Murray was ranked 17th in the world.

2007

At the start of 2007 Murray started the season seeded 15th.  He successfully defended his San Jose title whilst his brother also won the doubles title. They became the first pair of brothers to win singles and doubles titles at the same event since Emilio and Javier Sánchez at Kitzbühel in 1989.

In late November, Murray split from coach Brad Gilbert, replacing him with a "team of coaches".

2008

Murray trained hard in the off-season setting himself up for a year when he would truly come of age, leading Murray to say he had never been better prepared for a season. Murray's hard work paid off immediately as he sealed his fourth career title at the 2008 Qatar ExxonMobil Open, defeating top seed and world number four Nikolay Davydenko, which assured Murray rose into the Top 10.

In a bid to improve his results on clay, which had been thus far his least successful surface, Murray began working with former French Open runner-up Alex Corretja. Murray reached the third round of the French Open, and completed a convincing second-round win over clay specialist José Acasuso 6–4, 6–0, 6–4, which BBC Sport described as "his best ever performance on clay".

At Queen's, Murray reached the quarterfinals, but withdrew from his quarter final match against Andy Roddick owing to a thumb injury. As the twelfth seed at Wimbledon, Murray reached the quarter final where he was defeated by eventual champion Rafael Nadal, 6–3, 6–2, 6–4.

Murray returned to action on the US Open Series, where he defeated Novak Djokovic in the final of the Cincinnati Masters, to win his first Master Series shield. This ensured that Murray reached a career high of No. 6 in the world.

In the U.S. Open, Murray played Nadal with Murray triumphing 6–2, 7–6, 4–6, 6–4. Murray became the first British man since Greg Rusedski in 1997 to reach the final of a Grand Slam. Unfortunately Murray lost the final to Roger Federer in straight sets, 6–2, 7–5, 6–2.

2009

2009 has started with a bang for Murray. He has beaten world number ten James Blake, world number two Roger Federer, and world number one Rafael Nadal, to win the 2009 Capitala World Tennis Championship. Following this he headed to Doha for the Qatar Open, in the start of the 2009 ATP Tour, where he beat again beat Roger Federer, on the way to retaining his title.

Murray is seeded fourth and has been installed as tournament favourite by the bookmakers for the Australian Open, with Rafael Nadal first seed, Roger Federer second seed, and Novak Djokovic third seed.  By the time you read this, hopefully Andy will have won the first of his Grand Slam titles.