The young 18 year old Scot has quickly captured the attention of the nation following his outstanding performance at this years Wimbledon. His tennis is at the highest level and he proved this to everyone after winning the first two sets against former finalist Nalbandian. Unfortunately, his fitness did not hold out but I am convinced that we will be seeing Andy win at least one grand slam over the next two years as his level of fitness improves.

He shows a huge amount of determination and passion for the game on court which makes his matches the most exciting to watch.

Recently, he won his first challenger event so well done to him for that!

Andy's Biography

This year, I was lucky enough to travel to Wimbledon with my tennis club. I had seen the Andy/Nalbandian match on tv a few days previouly and I was hoping that, although Andy was out of the singles, he would be playing doubles the day I was there. I also hoped that his "I will give an autograph to everyone who wants one policy" would get me one!

Prior to traveling to traveling to Wimbledon, I talked about Andy so much that someone called me an "Andy-Murray-Stalker!"

Back to Wimbledon...we walk in and who is the first person we see? Lletton Hewitt playing doubles on one of the outside courts! I said in an awed whisper to one of my friends, "It's Lleytton Hewitt!"

So...we all stood there clicking our cameras at him until, resigned to the fact that we had to find our coach Alex, we headed to the "kid's zone" where a variety of activities awaited us. First one: what I like to call "air tennis." After the second activity, Alex rounded us up so some random photographer could tell us, "stand left shoulder to the wall...right shoulder to the wall," in order to make us stand in a good pose. No idea what it was for!

On the other side of the room was a serve-o-meter for measuring the speed of us mere mortal's serve's. My fastest  61mph hour serve humbled me in comparison to Andy Roddick's 147mph serve. Still, my excuse is that I'm a girl and not so powerful. Bad excuse I guess, since Venus is serving in the 100mph's!!

Stepping back into the Wimbledon Sunlight (oxymoron!), we wandered around the famed grounds in search of famous faces. A blue-eyed, blond-haired guy in a white cap carrying a tennis bag walked past - Thomas Johansson! This was the guy who put Andy Murray out at the Stella Artois tournament at Queen's, who had won the Australian Open and who eventually made it to the semi-finals at Wimbledon. And what did we do? Charge at him and demand his autograph? No. We stood there and had a frenzied discussion about what his name was!!! Our big chance to get a famous person's autograph and we miss it! He had disappeared by the time we remembered his name and ran after him. Presumably he was already playing his match.

Inspired by our close encounter with a big name, we headed to the door of the player's lounge, hoping that luck was on our side and we would have a second chance of an autograph. Unfortuantely, our patience went unrewarded. I did manage to take a photograph of this guy in a cap who waved from the overhead walkway. He may have been Roger Federer...or he may just have been a guy in a cap who waved!

Nearing 1 pm, we approached the majestic centre court. The match: Lleytton Hewitt vs. Taylor Dent. Incidentally, Andy Murray had beaten Taylor Dent in the first round at Queen's.

After climbing up a really ridiculous amount of stairs and walking along the corriddor to staircase 57, my friend and I took our seats. The other three girls were sitting at a different part of centre court. As the match progressed I kept thinking, "I can't believe I'm really here." Other people were probably thinking, "I wish she wasn't here" due to the fact that my camera makes really quite a loud buzzing sound each time it winds on.

Some time into the match I decided to eat lunch. My friend and I had come prepared with sandwiches as we had been forewarned about the extortionately expensive prices of Wimbledon food! No famed strawberry and cream for us and, fortunately, no famed rain delay either!

Our time to leave and pass on our tickets to the boys came all too soon. We were back out in the scorching sun and wandering around the outer courts waiting for about 4 o' clock - the time that Andy Murray would be playing mixed doubles on court 3.

My friend and I queed for the Andy Murray match for what seemed like hours. I stood with my autograph book and camera ready, staring up the corridor in anticipation of Andy's arrival. We were let into the stands before he arrived. I was glad...I had been worried we would not get into the match at all.

The singles match on that court concluded. Down at the player's box near the court, a familiar person entered. It was Andy Murray's mother...Judy Murray - national coach for Scotland and probably the most filmed person in the players box at Wimbledon! Hastily, I took a photograph - it turned out to be of the back of her head. I looked for Jamie Murray - Andy's older brother - but he was nowhere to be seen.

My annoyingly noisy camera was at work again. Andy Murray had been the person who I really wanted to see and I was not going to lose this opportunity to photograph him. It turned out that I took more photo's than I had first thought. I probably now have about 20 photos of him!

They lost but it did not really seem to matter. I was overjoyed to have seen this great player play.

It's a great experience seeing a great player play; but to get a great player's autograph? That is every tennis fans's dream, My friend and I pushed into the crowd surrounding the exit of Court 3. We peered through the sea of heads, our cameras and autograph books at the ready. Andy walked out. Cameras clicked and arms shoved autograph books under his nose. This time I was not aware of my uncommonly loud camera. I was in there clicking, throwing my autograph book in with the rest of the fans. My friend stuck her program in his path. I did the same with my notebook. He signed the program. He moved his pen on to my notebook. It was more flimsy, harder to write on. He made a mark on the page. The surface folded slightly. "He'll not bother to sign it," I told myself, "he's made a mark on the page and that'll be it." But no! Now I can say: "I GOT ANDY MURRAY'S AUTOGRAPH!"  After he'd signed my book I said, in an awed unbelieving voice, "Thank you."

For a while afterwards, I could do nothing but smile!

"Thank you for signing every autograph Andy!"

No trip to Wimbledon would be complete without a visit to the famous Henman Hill. (or Rusedki Ridge, or its newest name: Murray Mound/Mountain) My friend and I walked up there and looked for the tv camera, which happens to be high up on a crane-like device. A friend had suggested that we hold up a random sign (such as one saying "giraffe") so they would regconise us if we were filmed. There was no need for a "giraffe" sign however, we sat at the summit, out of the cameras range.

Playing on centre court were Roger Federer and Mario Ancic. We had missed the earlier Kim Clisters vs. Lindsay Davenport match.

Henman Hill was pleasant but did not have the fiery atmosphere it is said to have when a Brit is playing.

Click here to read about the rest of my day at Wimbledon!

The face who always appears in the players' box at any of Andy Murray's games, the most famous mother in tennis...and where is she after Andy's game? Sitting in the cafe outside which we are standing! Thinking along the lines that her autograph next to Andy's would be good, the girls, who had not been with us while we got Andy's autograph, started devising stratigies for us to obtain just that. Of course, other strategies (such as how to get Andy's 'phone number) were thought of as well...

Alex turned up while Andy's mother was leaving the cafe. Conveniently, he knows her so she started talking to us!!!

This is the part where I make a complete fool of myself. Picture this: everyone is standing there quietly and I hastily say, "Andrew (since when has anyone called him Andrew???) played brilliantly today."

Judy says, "No he didn't! He played terribly!"

I say, "But the other day, in the singles, he played really well. I was watching."

I sort of say a bit more about how good he is and already look like an idiot from praising him too much!

She was really nice and she talked to us more, telling us something about how Andy is asked to do a lot of interviews so does only the big ones now, and also how she and Mark (Petchey, Andy's coach) take a lot of the morning interviews for him so he can have a lie in. (and I smile the whole time and look even more like an idiot.) 

As though I had not made enough of a fool of myself already, I finish it off when she has already started to leave. I say after her, "Tell Andrew (Andrew again???) he played really well." !!!

I am embarrassed, I am an idiot and I made a complete fool of myself!

It has been said that Roger Federer has made tennis the beautiful game. Many of his tennis strokes are considered perfect. When he is on form playing on grass, it is debatable as to whether anybody can beat him.

He has won Wimbledon three years in a row, this is equalled only by Borg and Sampres. He has beaten the legendary Pete Sampres, he has won all the US and Austrailian Open's and Wimbledon, needing only the French Open to complete the collection of all four Grand Slam trophies.

In the cooler eveing, the girls took another trip to centre court to see this great man play. It was only for half an hour but it was worth it to see Roger Federer play his perfect game.