Andy Murray
A New Tennis Star On The Rise

Andrew Murray, or better known as Andy Murray is a Scottish tennis player and he holds, currently at the time of writing, the highest ranked British tennis professional in ATP Tour rank.

He made his way first time to make it thru the ATP's Top 10 ranking on 16 April 2007. His present career-high ranking is 4th in the world.

His latest significant achievement was when he reached the US Open 2008 Men's Singles Final, only to lose to possibly one of the greatest tennis player of all time, Roger Federer.

Some interesting facts about Andy Murray:

• He has an elder brother, Jamie Murray, who's also a high-ranked ATP Tour professional tennis player, but specializes in doubles.
• He can perform his best plays on fast court surfaces (hard and grass).
• During some points in his career, Andy was coached by Brad Gilbert, who's also known to coach some of the world's best, including Andre Agassi.
• When it comes to nationality, Andy prefers to identify himself as 'Scottish, but also British'. In an interview with the BBC, he stated that he is proud and comfortable with his nationality; which of course he's still a British after all. In fact, part of his family was originated from Newcastle, which makes him a quarter English.

Andy Murray got his first hit on a tennis ball when he was only two years of age. His first competitive rival was his older brother, Jamie. Even from early on, he has showed an 'unbelievably competitive' trait in his game, according to his junior tennis coach, Leon Smith.

Apparently, one of his initial reasons on how he got his motivation to do well in tennis was his determination to compete against Jamie. His older brother at that time was ranked second in junior world rank.

What can you learn?

It's interesting how family dynamics can influence one's motivation. While there may be some jealousy in the teenage years, there should be respect and admiration when one matures.

Andy may have not been in the best relationship with his brother 10 years ago but now they often play doubles together which indicates that both of them have grown up and want to make the best of their friendship and their tennis skills.

When Andy Murray was only 15, he first moved to Barcelona to train in the Schiller International School tennis academy and then moved to the Sanchez Casal Academy where he also learned how to play and move effectively on clay.

This was a big sacrifice to Murray and his family, realizing that he had to train abroad far away from home and at the same time cover all the academy expenses. Andy was of course not earning any money with his tennis at that time.

What can you learn?

There is no way you can become a top 10 tennis player in the world and not make huge sacrifices. But if there is real desire to achieve your dreams, then putting all your time, money and effort into tennis does not feel like a big sacrifice.

Andy definitely knew that tennis is something he wants to pursue and he and his family made sure that he got the best training possible in junior development period.

Those sacrifices eventually paid off when he won the Junior US Open in September 2004. In the same year he was selected to join the Davis Cup team, and his first match was against Austria, also in September.


Andy Murray's ranking history is quite an interesting one. He jumped more than 400 places between 2004 and 2005 and ended up in the top 100. He also won his first ATP matches in 2005 and eventually finished at #64.

He rose to #17 in 2006 when he also won his first ATP title in San Jose against Lleyton Hewitt. He was also one of two players that beat Roger Federer that year. The second was of course Rafael Nadal.

In 2007 he first entered the top 10 in the world, although he was plagued by various injuries that prevented him from playing for a few weeks which included missing the Wimbledon championships.

He learned his lessons at the start of 2008 and started a tough regime of fitness training which showed great results; he won the Qatar Open in January. He also won Marseille and Cincinnati Open, reached the final the 2008 US Open and is now ranked at #4.

What can you learn?

Andy's meteor rise in 2005 didn't shock him and he quickly adapted to the highest level of tennis. He even beat Federer in 2006 when Roger was almost unbeatable.

This shows that Andy Murray has the skills and the tactical and mental game to compete and win against the best players in the world. He has already beaten Nadal and Djokovic this year (2008) and proved that he really belongs in the top 5 players in the world.

Andy's constant rise also shows something else - he is still working on his strategy, mental and fitness part of the game to polish those last weaknesses that he may have. He hasn't become too satisfied with success and keeps improving himself day by day.

Andy reached his first Grand Slam in 2008 and it surely won't be the last one. This page will be updated every now and then with Andy's career results so come back often to see what you can learn from a tennis champion like Andy Murray.

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