Updated fairly regularly, this section has the latest Andy Murray news on how he is doing in his tournaments, what his new rankings are when they change, and more...
Monday 17th April Latest Murray news
Sorry for the complete lack of recent updates - I'm trying to revise for my highers!
In the world of Andrew Murray, he has played the doubles in the Davies Cup after being forced to withdraw from the singles due to a bacterial infection. He and Greg Rusedski unfortunately lost the doubles in four sets but it was a great match. I was actually there at Braehead Arena, Glasgow, watching it and the atmosphere was nothing less than electric! The BBC decided to show Golf or racing all day so those unfortunate tennis fans without digital tv (i.e. me) had only one choice if we were to see this match: travelling to experience it live. Andy Murray has vastly improved his doubles play since I saw him in the mixed doubles last year at Wimbledon. I was unfortunately unable to add Greg's autograph to Andy's as he signed only one and then walked off. Murray seemed particularly unhappy with the result that day as he walked off without signing any autographs at all despite last years policy of "I'll give an autograph to anyone who wants one provided it does not interfere with my training schedule." Anyway, I didn't go to get autographs; I went to see some fantastic tennis and I wasns't dissappointed in the least: it was the best tennis I've ever seen!
Very recently, Murray announced a spilt from his coach of ten months: Mark Petchey. He said this was due to differences of opinion regarding certain aspects of his game. In the past, Petchey contributed to the rapid rise in the rankings of two women players who have since dropped dramatically fallen from their positions. Perhaps Murray's decision to change his coach takes this into account and he feels that it is neccessary to have a change in coach in order to progress further up the rankings or even remain where he is. Murray has not found a new coach yet but he says that he is in no hurry to decide.
Sunday 5th March Murray beats Hewitt
Well, the extrodinary has happened: Murray has beaten two of the top players in the world to win his first ATP title in San Jose! In the final, he beat Lleytton Hewitt, losing the first set 2-6 but winning the next two 6-1 and 7-6. He is now ranked 42. It looks as though Andy should do pretty well at Wimbledon this year despite being beaten by Tommy Robredo in the first round of the Las Vegas Championships soon after his win over Hewitt.
Sunday 19th February Murray beats Roddick
Andrew Murray has beaten Andy Roddick, the top seed in the San Jose Open, in the semi-final and is now through to his second ATP final, this time against the third-seeded Australian Lleytton Hewitt who is a former champion of Wimbledon and the US Open. The score against Roddick, former winner of US Open and last years finalist at Wimbledon, was 7-5, 7-5. Murray is currently ranked at 60th in the world but his ranking will improve to put him in the top 50 after his stunning progress in this competition.
I will admit that I'm pretty amazed by this win against Roddick as Roddick is one of the best players in the world and Murray is only 18 and did not have a brilliant start to the year. It looks like he plays better when he is under less pressure. In my opinion, Roddick is better than Hewitt and, from recent results, it does not look as though Hewitt has been playing that well so I think that Andrew Murray has a very good chance of winning his first ATP tournament.
The final will be at 2300 GMT today so I'm looking forward to seeing the results tommorrow. COME ON ANDY!
Due to the fact that I now own a scanner, most of my photographs from my trip to Wimbledon this summer will hopefully be scanned and posted sometime soon. These include many photographs of Andy as I described in my report of the trip. I will also scan the precious autograph.
Saturday 18th February Andy vs. Andy
Andrew Murray will face Andy Roddick in the semi-finlas of the San Jose Open after beating the Swede Robin Soderling 4-6, 7-5, 6-4. In this match he was given a code violation for swearing at the umpire and Soderling complained about his behaviour. Murray is quoted saying that he does not want to be unpopular on tour but he must do whatever ti takes to win. Murray potentially faces a final against Lleytton Hewitt or Vince Spadea. This is good news after Murray's disappointingly early first round exit from the Australian Open. Best of luck to Murray in his semi-final and hopefully it will be shown on television sometime.
Sorry for the lack of recent news but I've been extremely busy.
Since I have not updated since before the Australian Open began I will report that Amelie Mauresmo won her first Grand Slam title in a dissapointing final which saw her opponent Justine Henin-Hardenne pull out due to illness. The men's final was between world number 1 Roger Federer and surprisingly twenty year-old Marcos Baghdatis, who was ranked around 52 in the world. Baghdatis took the first set but Federer picked up his game to win the next three sets and take the title.
Due to the fact that I now own a scanner, most of my photographs from my trip to Wimbledon this summer will hopefully be scanned and posted sometime soon. These include many photographs of Andy as I described in my report of the trip.
Saturday 7th January Andrew Murray aims for top 20
Andrew Murray is back competing after spending three weeks in South Africa training hard . He has unfortunately had little success in Australia so far, beaten by Czech Republic's Tomas Berdych in the second round of the Next Generation Adelaide International on Thursday (January 5th).
The Australian Open takes place in Melbourne later this month and, as the only Briton competing, Murray will be under a lot of pressure. He aims to win some matches at the upcoming Heineken Open as he says this would be good preparation for the Australian Open since the court surface is the same.
Andy aims to be in the top 20 by the end of this year. This target is one he feels is realistic if he does very well in the Grand Slams and Masters series early this year as he has no ranking points to defend during this time.
An interesting event in the tennis world is the return of Swiss Martina Hinghis after a five year retirement period due to injury. This particularly interests me as I have never seen her play but have seen her occasionally interviewed in the Wimbledon studio by Sue Barker and have also heard her mentioned many times during the rain breaks at Wimbledon.
Sunday 11th December Scottish Personality of the Year
Andy has won the Scottish Sports Personality of the year! No surprises there then since I cannot think of a person who deserves it more.
Andrew Murray began his Christmas shopping in Edinburgh this Friday (9th December) and also had a rally with some pupils from St. Georges School. I have not seen him but I'm on the lookout!
Photographs of Edinburgh. Right are the courts on which the Meadows City Tennis Club plays. Left is a sunset over the Meadows.
Sunday 4th December Murray defeats Rusedski
Last weeks report was of a Rusedski triumph over Dunblane's Andrew Murray. In fact, later on the Sunday of the update, Andy defeated Rusedski in their second meeting at the Aberdeen Cup. The match was very close with Murray narrowly winning on a tie-break after Rusedski became injured towards the end of the match.
Jamie
Andy has recently spoken out against the LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) regarding his elder brother Jamie. At twelve, Jamie was one of the top players in the world for his age group and was competing against players such as Rafael Nadal, this years winner of the French open; and Richard Gasquet. At this young age, he was sent to an LTA tennis academy in Cambridge where the coaches attempted to techniqely change his then killer-forehand. This shot became one of the weakest points in his game because of this. He lost a huge amount of confidence in himself and became homesick. He stayed at the academy for less than a year and when he returned home, he loss a lot of enjoyment of tennis and reportedly did not play for three months. It was only this year that Jamie broke into the world's top 1000 while his younger brother Andy, who trained at the Sanchez academy in Barcelona, rose in the rankings from 416th to 65th, reached the third round of Wimbledon and was a semi-finalist losing to Roger Federer in the ATP Thailand Open. Andy is reported several times as saying that the LTA "ruined" his brother's game.
Sunday 27th November Murray defeated by Rusedski
Andy Murray has been defeated by Greg Rusedski in a close match at this weekends Scotland-England tie in Aberdeen. The score was: 7-5, 7-6 (8-6).
Andy's elder brother, Jamie, was beaten by England's David Sherwood 6-4, 6-2, 7-5. I would really like to see Jamie Murray improve immensely so he can play at his younger brother's level and be a force on the ATP tour.
A. Murray is scheduled to play Rusedski again today in both doubles and singles.
Sorry for the lack of recent news: I've been trying to sort out my new Harry Potter website. Click here to take a look at "Behind the Veil."
I have updated the "Doctor Who" page on this site.
Sunday 20th November
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the tennis season seems to be pretty well finished for this year.
Andy Murray has finished the year on a ranking of about 67 which is way inside his beginning-of-year aim to finish inside the top hundred. I continue to belive, as I have since Wimbledon this year, that Andy will win a grand slam in either the course of the next year or the year after that. I do not think it will be Wimbledon, since it is extremely unlikely that he has the ability to beat Roger Federer on grass, but on other, sufaces, he will go far.
Friday 28th October
Andrew Murray has been beaten by Fernando Gonzalez 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, in a bid to reach the semi-finals of the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in Basel. He reached this stage through a win over Britains number one, Tim Henman, in the opening round of the competition: 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (7-4), and then a win of 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 over Tomas Berdych.
I expected him to beat Henman, although the match was very close, and I think it will not be long until we see this talented young player take the spot of British number one and, at some point, possible world number one!
Saturday 22nd October David Beckham and Amir Khan
David Beckham attended the Madrid Masters and is has been very complementary about Andrew Murray, believing him to be well on the way to the really big time in the tennis world.
The young British boxer, Amir Khan, silver medallist at the last Olympic games, seems to have struck up a friendship with Andrew Murray after the pair met at a BBC sports award ceremony recently. Both have been very complementary about the other's progress in the sporting world and Amir Khan has invited Murray to be his VIP guest at a coming fight.
Boxing is Andy's favourite sport after tennis and there are some plans to introduce this sport into his training to help improve his fitness levels and stamina.
Saturday 15th October
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Sunday 9th October We have been mentioned!
Today, Scotland on Sunday online has an article about a Murray-inspired tennis revival in Scotland. My tennis coach Alex Harkins is mentioned and he talks about the trip to Wimbledon!
"Alex Harkin, a Tennis Development Officer in Edinburgh, has found himself, willingly, working overtime to cope with the demands of some of his Murray-inspired charges.
Harkin says: "I run the Meadows City Tennis project and as I speak I have 20 kids, aged from 8 to 17 playing on Friday night. It's getting dark and I can't get them off court.
"There has been a big surge since Andrew's exploits at Wimbledon. I took a party of 15 down and although Andy went out of the singles on the Saturday, they watched him in the mixed doubles on the Sunday. They couldn't wait to see him and couldn't stop talking about him. Then we bumped into Judy Murray, his mum, in the cafe and it really made their day. Hopefully, this will be reflected in the clubs and we will see a boost in interest among them.
"Andy and the run of success he has had in such a short time has given us a golden opportunity to take the sport forward here."
Read the full article here.
Judy Murray writes about tennis for the Telegraph online and she has recently written an interesting article about her son.
Saturday 8th October Murray out of Challenger
Murray advanced through the second round of the Belgian challenger in straight sets against Gregory Carraz but a hamstring injury aided Xavier Mallisse in his defeat of Murray in the third.
Challenger 1st round
Andy Murray is through the first round of a Belgian challenger event after a win of 6-4, 6-4 over the Swiss Ivo Heuberger. He will play his second round match against Frenchman Gregory Carraz.
Sunday 2nd October Final against Roger Federer for Murray!!!!
Andy Murray has been in his first ever final of an ATP event and he played the person who many people consider to be the best man on the circuit, Roger Federer. This is a brilliant achievement for him and should quieten anyone who still doubts his abilities to play at the highest level and to win.
Although, I did not expect him to beat Roger Federer this time, I am extremely glad that Andy finally had the chance to play him after missing out at the Davis Cup. The score was 6-3, 7-5; an impressive sore I would say for somebody in their first ATP final playing somebody like Federer. The scoreline reflects the fact the Andy can take pressure and will refuse to be intimidated by anybody.
His ranking should now be below 70. Take note, at the age of 18, Federer was ranked 64. Could we be watching the rise of the next Federer?
Murray reached this final by beating the Thai number 1, Paradorn Shrichapan yeaterday 6-7, 7-5, 6-4.
As usual, all channels including the BBC refused to show tennis even though Britains brightest tennis hope is doing amazing things on the other side of the world. Instead, there are two "Match of the Days" for football on both Saturaday and Sunday. Now Andy has reached the final, the BBC seem to have taken a slight bit of notice and the highlights of this match are scheduled to be shown at 10.55 tonight.
Hopefully, Andy will take a trip south to Malaysia, half my country (The other half being Scotland). However, perhaps this would not be good for his game as he might seriously suffer from the +40C heat in the mid afternoon as my brother, mother and I did when on holiday there this summer. On the other hand, I don't see why Thailand would be any less hot so he may as well travel down to Malaysia. (Visit Ipoh!)
Saturday 1st October INTO THE SEMI-FINALS!!!
Andy Murray has reached the semi-finals of the Thailand Open after a win of 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 over US Open semi-finalists and world no. 21, Robby Ginepri! He will be facing Thailands top player Paradon Shrichapan in the semi-final who advanced through the previous round due to Lleytton Hewitt having been injured. Should Murray win this match, he will be facing Roger Federer in the final.
In a previous round, Murray beat the Swedish fifth seed Robin Soderling which has finally taken him into the top 100 and guarantees an automatic qualification into the Australian Open. Murray has also achieved his personal goal set at the beginning of the year which was to break into the top 100 by the end of it.
Hopefully, Andy will take a trip south to Malaysia, half my country (The other half being Scotland). However, perhaps this would not be good for his game as he might seriously suffer from the +40C heat in the mid afternoon as my brother, mother and I did when on holiday there this summer. On the other hand, I don't see why Thailand would be any less hot so he may as well travel down to Malaysia. (Visit Ipoh!)
Saturday 24th September
Andy Murray and Greg Rusedski lost yesterday to Roger Federer and Allegro. For once, this match was on TV...but only until it was replaced by horse racing on BBC 1 and the SNP party conference on BBC 2. I had to wait patiently for two hours to discover the score of this close and exciting match. It is a pity that they did not win since it would have been very interesting to have seen Andy Murray play Roger Federer today; but since the Swiss have already won 3 out of the 5 matches, this match would have been pointless.
Read my match analysis-type-thing here.
Saturday 17th September
Andy's ranking has improved since his his win at the US Open and he is now on the verge of breaking into the top 100. He is ranked 111.
Andy Murray will lead a Scottish team in a Scotland v. England team tennis competition in Aberdeen in November. Greg Rusedksi is likely to lead the English side. Aberdeen is so near here so hopefull he will come down here and I'll see him!
He has hired Frank Dick to work on his fitness.
To see previous news, look in the news archive
