Andy Murray has come out top of a list of gay icons in tennis. The young Scot now has is third title of the year to add to his two ATP tennis title he has already won this year.

The poll was conducted for dating site ‘gay-PARSHIP.co.uk’, they asked users to vote for their top male tennis pin ups. Spokesman Adrain Gillian said

He is slightly vulnerable. And there’s also something sexy about that Scottish accent

The fiery Murray topped a poll by gay Brits, beating Aussie Mark Philippoussis into second place by 4 percent. The 3rd, 4th and 5th positions were grabbed by Andy Roddick, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, respectively in the list of ‘Top 5 Male Tennis Pin-Ups’.

Nicolas Almagro ended Andy Murray’s run at this years French Open. The clay-court specialist Nicolas Almagro won in 4 sets 6-3 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 7-5.

Almagro got of to a quick start and broke Murray’s opening service game, the Spaniard went on to win the set rarely being troubled on his own serve. Andy Murray would battle back and claimed the second set on a tie breaker. He actually broke early in the third set to take control of the match, but Almagro won five straight games and the set. The Fourth set was a formality for Almagro as Murrays fight had beaten out of him.

Almagro will now play French wild card Jeremy Chardy who beat Russia’s Dmitry Tursunov, the 30th seed, 7-6 (7-1) 6-3 6-4.

After the match Murray said,

I think I proved I’m a good clay court player, You saw by the way that he reacted at the end of the match that it was a tough match. To win against me on clay, it is a very good result – I’m not someone that’s going to be taken lightly on this surface in the future. I believe that I’m going to be one of the top players on clay in a couple years. I just need a bit more experience, a bit more strength and understanding of how to play and I’ll be up there with the best players.

The 19th seed Almagro is very much a clay court specialists, in fact is rarely seen on any other surface. He has won 2 clay court titles this year in Brazil and Mexico and now boasts 28 wins on the surface this year.

Andy Murray’s attentions will now turn to the grass court season with StellaArtois Championship and Wimbledon just around the corner,

I want to try to win the tournament. I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but I believe that if I play my best tennis, I can win,” said Murray, who did not compete at the All England Club in 2007 because of a wrist injury. I’ve won against a lot of the top players. Not as many guys play so well on grass. If you can get through the first few rounds and work your way into the tournament, there’s no reason why not.

Andy Murray has just given one his best performances ever and without question his best performance to date on clay. In match that lasted just over an hour and half the young Scot won in straight sets 6-4, 6-0, 6-4 against Argentina’s Jose Acasuso at the French Open.

With the British press hot in his back after a poor first round display where he just scraped through against a French wildcard, the British number today put all this behind him and produced some of his best form to really send a message home to his critics. Murray took control from the first ball hit, breaking the clay court specialist Acasuso in game one. He completed the match unbroken on his own serve and notched up another 4 breaks of serve.

Andy Murray sealed victory in one hour 37 minutes and now faces Spaniard Nicolas Almagro, currently ranked 20th in the world in the thrid round.

Murray admitted he had been in poor form in his opening match against French teenager Jonathan Eysseric and may have felt he had a point to prove, in the interview straight after the match Murray went on to say,

I felt my performances on clay have been decent this year but I keep getting questioned why I’m not doing better, I wanted to show I could beat a good clay court player. Acasuso might not be a Federer or a Nadal but I showed I can play on clay. I wanted to show to myself I can do it. To win in straight sets, not lose my serve and break five or six times doesn’t happen too often. It’s not too often a match goes as well as that. I’m very pleased, it was a great performance. I was very aggressive and my shot selection was great.

During the Match Murray’s shot selection was almost perfect every time and even managed to play his favorite drop shot at the correct moments. But it wasn’t just the drop shot that was working, his net play was particular good and on a few occasions produced some high class lobs to earn vital points.

Murray will now face Spain’s Nicolas Almagro, who is seeded 19th and ranked 20th in the world. Almagro has 4 career titles to his name with all his victories coming on clay, so the Spaniard will be a formidable opponent for the young Scotsman. The two have yet to play each other on the ATP tour.

Jamie Murray has requested to receive one of the eight Wimbledon wild-cards at this year event.

The current Wimbledon mixed doubles champion has not played a pro singles for the last year, so has no singles ranking and has his highest ever ranking was only 834. His last top level singles match was a defeat to Dutchman Robin Haase last year in Davis Cup.

The LTA will put forward up to 8 British men and women ranked in the world’s top 250 to the All England Club. At the moment though, on the men’s side, only two men fit that criteria: Jamie Baker, at 242, and 243rd-ranked Alex Bogdanovic. Baker is likely not to play due to serious illness. The Wimbledon committee however could choose to invite any other internationals in the top 250. High profile players like Gustavo Kuerten who’s singles rank does not permit automatic entry was given a wild-card this week for the French open

I would like to give it a go, and I thought after what I did last year it was probably my best chance. It would be a dream come true. We don’t have too many options in our country so I thought why not give it a try? The faster surfaces suit my game so I think I could do OK. I can only ask and see what happens.

There should be no hesitation from the Wimbledon Officials handing Jamie Murray the wild-card for Wimbledon. Confidence breeds success and Jamie Murray has a good reason to have a lot of confidence, he has truly established himself as one of the best doubles players on tour, not to even mention his victory with Jelena Jankovicin the mixed doubles event last year. The LTA should be looking to build Jamie Murray has a singles player to utilise if required in Davis Cup matches. He has proven himself in the doubles rubber’s and cemented his place in the team, but having one double specialist in the team, limits the options in singles.

Andy Murray, British number and 10th seed at Rolland Garros, battled through an up and down encounter against the French wild card Jonathan Eysseric 6-2 1-6 4-6 6-0 6-2 to record his first ever French Open victory and reach the second round.

The victory is all the more satisfying for Murray since he had to come back from 2 sets to 1 down and had been fighting a throat infection last week, which limited the amount of training the Scot could do. After the win, Murray said,

I didn’t play particularly well and he made me do a lot of running which wasn’t the plan. Playing a young guy you’ve not seen takes a little bit of time to get used to. But I never felt I was going to lose the match. I was happy I came through it. (in regards to his throat infection) I was told to do half of what I would normally do, I had to make sure I wasn’t tiring myself out too much and getting a lot of sleep. I feel a bit better today but this has been the first day I have been feeling good. I’ll take tomorrow easy and work hard in the gym on Tuesday.

Although Murray took the first set it was more down to errors on Eysseric’s side and as he managed to cut out the errors he went on to take the next two sets and it was Murray who began to miss-fire. A younger Murray may have lost his cool at this point, with a partisan crowd fully behind the young Frenchman, actually the youngest player in the Men’s draw.

Thinking back to two years ago when an emerging Murray faced David Nalbandian at Wimbledon, it was Murray’s fitness that held him back from winning that match and it was rolls reversed here today as Murray took advantage of physically tiring Eysseric, who at one point needed the trainer on court for cramp. The Briton rattled off 6 games in a row to take it in to a decider. Murray broke three times to take a 5-1 lead, but Eysseric refused to give in and broke back at 5-2, before the British number one broke again to close out the match.

Andy Murray will now face the Argentine Jose Acasuso on Wednesday in the Second round. Acasuso is a clay court specialist, so this match should be an even tougher test for Murray,

The draw for this years French Open has been made and Andy Murray has been drawn in the last quarter of draw against French Wild card Jonathan Eysseric. The last quarter of the draw also includes current champion and second seed Rafael Nadal, who will be a possible quarter final opponent for Murray and Sixth seed David Nalbandian who would be a possible 4th round opponent should the young Scot make it this far.

Murray’s quarter of the draw looks like this,

For Andy Murray to make progress in this event he will have to face a few tough opponents, most will see the wild card draw as an advantage to Murray. However Jonathan Eysseric is a 17 year old left handed Frenchman who will have the full support of a very partisan French crowd, who will not miss the opportunity to get on Murray’s back. Eysseric will turn 18 on Tuesday 27th May, a possible date for their encounter another reason possibly that Frenchman will be fired up.

The Rolland Garros crowd are quick to let their feeling known and Murray’s “difficult” attitude could prove great bait for the crowd, so lets hope Murray really can turn over a new leaf.

Other likely opponents for Murray if he progresses will be Dominik Hrbaty in the second round, the veteran from Slovakia is now aged 30 and will be playing in one of his last French Open’s, he has only played 3 matches so far this year. Hrbaty beat Murray in 2006 in their only ever previous meeting.

Possible third round opponent will be 19th seed Spaniard Nicolas Almagro. Almagro is a clay court specialist, so much so that he avoided the big money / big ranking point American hard court season this year to play clay court matches in South America, where he won a two low key clay court tournaments. He also managed quarter final spot in this years Masters event in Rome, also played on clay. Murray will do well to beat this tough Spaniard.

Other Players

World number one Roger Federer faces American Sam Querrey and has avoided Novak Djokovic from his half of the draw. The Australian Open champion Djokovic takes on Germany’s Denis Gremelmayrin the first round and is drawn to meet the winner of the Murray / Nadal quarter if he makes it that far.#

3 times French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten, who is playing in his final tournament before retiring completely from the game, faces a tough opening match against French 18th seed Paul-Henri Mathieu. The tough French crowd on this occasion may behind the Brazilian more than the Frenchman.

Rest of the Draw

Andy Murray will be seeded 10th for the draw of today’s French Open. Currently ranked 11th in the world, he moves up to 10th seeding due to the withdrawal of Andy Roddick due to injury the American has picked up.

With no points to defend at this tournament due to missing last year’s with a wrist injury, Murray will be hoping for a good draw, with easy route to later the stages. There is less than 100 points separating him from 10th place Wawrinka in the world rankings and Murray will surely be hoping to overtake this at Rolland Garros. 9th place is not unachievable, 150 point overhaul on Richard Gasquet would be required, though it would perhaps be asking too much of Murray to jump 8thplace Blake, who is currently over 500 points ahead of the Scot. A Final spot (700 points) or winner (1000points) would be required if Blake did not drop any points, at this stage maybe a little ahead of Muarry, who has only managed two straight victories on Clay this year.

Murray and his fellow seeds will be hoping to avoid 3 time former French Open champion wild-card Gustavo Kuerten. Guga as he is known on tour is a Rolland Garros favorite and in his day one of the all time best clay court players. This will be Guga’s final tournament before retiring, perhaps a showdown with Nadal would be a fitting tribute to the Brazilian.