Andy Murray

Last week Andy Murray announced that he was ready for a comeback at the Legg Mason tournament in Washington DC.  That tournament is on this week, and Murray pulled out a few days before it began as he decided that his wrist had not yet fully recovered.

This week he has announced that he is all set to return to competition in next weeks Montreal Masters tournament.

It has been 3 months since Andy injured his wrist during the Hamburg Masters.  He seemed to want to compete in Wimbledon, but had to pull out due to his wrist injury which had not fully recovered, despite intensive treatment.  His doctors gave him the all clear for the Legg Mason tournament, but again he pulled out, this time because he felt that he wanted to ease back into competition.

He may now have recovered physically, and apparently he has never been in better shape fitness-wise after having so much time to train.  The question is has Andy really recovered from this injury?  Could this be a mental hurdle that he is having a hard time getting over?

He is, after all, only 20 years old.  Although he has played competitively for more than half his life, he has never had media attention like he does now, especially since last years performance at Wimbledon.  With so much spotlight on him as Britains no 1 player, it can’t be easy for the boy to deal with the injuries he seems to accumulate and the disappointment that accompany these.

For such a young boy at the birth of his career as a top tennis player, perhaps fear has more to do with his time off than injury.  Possibly fear of more injuries, more time out of competition, more negative media attention…

Easing back into competition may just be a good way to avoid actually getting back into competition.

The long awaited return of Andy Murray to the ATP tour has been postponed. His website made the announcement today; he has withdrawn from the Legg Mason Classic tournament due to his wrist injury.

Britains no. 1 player had been hoping to be ready for next week’s hardcourt event after reaching the final in Washington last year.

The tear in his tendons, which he picked up during the Hamburg Masters ten weeks ago after a mistimed forehand, has already caused him to miss the French Open and Wimbledon. He has been testing the injury this week at the Bollettieri academy in Florida and has decided that he would like to use thisweek to continue the rehabilitation of his wrist, despite having been given the all-clear by doctors that his wrist has fully healed. However Murray wants to ease back into competition after being out for so long.

Murray is hoping to make his comeback at the Canada Masters in Montreal which begins on August 6. After Montreal there is just one Masters Series competition left before the start of the US Open on August 28th. This is the Cincinnati Masters, where Murray performed very well last year, beating Roger Federer in straight sets.

Due to lack of play, Murrays rankings have slipped from within the top 10 to world no. 14. He will have to play well in the next few tournaments if he wants to improve on his fourth round exit at the US open last year.

Let’s hope Andy gets the support he needs, even if it does mean surgery.  A number of other tennis greats have done.  Hopefully he’ll be able to get past this and continue with that winning attitude we all love so much!

His pet hates are: slow eating, burping and smoking 

His favourite subject at school was maths

Andy has a purply, stunted nail on the ring finger of his left hand which never really grows in properly - it just snaps off.  This is from the day when Andy first beat his older brother Jamie in a significant tennis match - the under 12’s final at Solihull.  When they were on the minibus on the way home Andy was teasing Jamie about having beaten him.  He was sitting behind Jamie and had his hand over the seat when Jamie turned round and smashed Andys hand with his fist.  By the time they got home it had swelled up and he had to be taken to the doctors to get an injection as it had become infected.

Murraymound was the Macmillian English Dictionary Word of the Week from the 30th June 2006 (following his success at Wimbledon that year).

In November of 2006 Andy allowed his fans to choose his next hairstyle out of four do’s.  These were:

• short at the back, messy on top
• a grade four buzz-cut all over
• trimmed and thinned but kept longish
• cut it himself (again)

His nickname is Muzcat.  But when he atended the Sanchez-Casal Academy in Barcelona he was nicknamed ‘Lazy English’.

Andy has had a big effect on British tennis already; there are now five British kids among the worlds top 50 junior players.

He is sponsored by the watch company Tag Heuer, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Fred Perry clothes and Head Prestige rackets.

Andy swore at the match official in the team Davis Cup competition after a four-set loss to Serbia and Montenegro in the Davis Cup competition in Glasgow in April 2006.  This got him a £1,400 fine against the British team which was the first time it had been fined for player misconduct in the 106 years that the UK has entered the Davis Cup competition.

He supports Hibernian Football Club.

In 2006, Andy was accused of being ‘anti-English’ when he was reported to have said that he would support ‘anyone who played against England’ in the World Cup.  However this reponse was really just a joke after an English reporter had asked him if he would be supporting Scotland in the World Cup while knowing full well that Scotland had not qualified for the tournament.

Andy now has a firm friendship with Tim Henman, who apparently has been a massive influence on him and is the first person he turns to for advice.

See a fun quick fire Q&A session with Andy Murray at YouTube

Andy Murray has announced that he will be returning to the court at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington next week after a ten week break from ATP Tour action.

The 20 year old British number 1 has been out of action since injuring his wrist at the Hamburg Masters in May, and as a result was forced to miss both the French Open and Wimbledon.

Murray feels that the break from competition has given him an opportunity to do some fitness training.  This has actually improved on his condition more than he would have been able to do had he been competing in tournaments.

He said “You can get match-fit by playing loads of matches, but you are not really getting physically stronger.” In the past 10 weeks he has had the chance to concentrate specifically on building up fitness.

Murray has said that this could give him an advantage on the other players who have not had the opportunity to do the same.

He has also said that all this extra conditioning work he has done should benefit him significantly on the hot American hardcourt season ahead of him leading up to the US Open.

Murray had been using lightweight balls in training due to his injury, but his rehabilitation has now been stepped up. The world no 14 travelled to the United States last weekend where he was training at Florida’s Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy with coach, Brad Gilbert, ahead of the Washington tournament which begins on Monday 30 July.

The Scotsman

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