Andy Murray appeared on Soccer AM  on Sky One (& Sky Sports 1) this morning. This was the young tennis star’s thrid appearance on the show and was presented with a hat-trick trophy from Helen Chamberlain and Andy Goldstein the current presenters of the show.

Andy Murray doesn’t really fit into the stuffy world of tennis, the majority of the UK journalists don’t really get Murray, but on a show like Soccer Am, I think he is lot more comfortable and his dry humour understood a little more. He still looks like his dog has just died, but this is just Andy.

On the show the tennis ace revealed he and Tim Henman are still friends, despite Henman’s comments describing Murray as a ‘miserable git’. Henman also went onto to say that Murray would have to improve his temperament if he ever wants to win Wimbledon. But Murray told Andy and Helen that there was no problem between himself and Henman:

It’s funny because I spoke to him about a week ago,” explained Murray. “I speak to him every couple of weeks on the phone and then he text me saying ‘ sorry if I’ve caused you any extra aggravation by calling you a miserable git’!  I text him back and said ‘there’s no problem telling the truth’! So it wasn’t really a problem.

You can see what else Murray had to say with this five minute clip of the show here - Andy Murray Soccer AM

Murray also showed his footballing skills again, a few times he has played keepy up with tennis balls on court and today he scored in the “Hollywood shootout”.

Britain’s second most successful open era player Tim Henman will join BBC Sport’s team of experts for coverage of this year’s Wimbledon Championships. This year Britain’s most successful open era player Greg Rusdeski has joined the BBC’s rival tv broadcasting team on Sky.

Today Henman said,

I’m delighted to be joining the BBC team this year, It’s exciting for me to return to Wimbledon in a non-playing capacity.

BBC TV executive producer of Wimbledon Paul Davies added:

Tim was an incredibly popular player and the success, drama and passion he experienced at Wimbledon has created a unique connection with both the Championship and British tennis fans. Returning to SW19 with the BBC team seems the perfect fit and his on-court experience will add a fascinating dimension to our coverage. We hope this will be the start of a successful partnership between Tim and the BBC.

Henman won 11 ATP career titles and reached four Wimbledon semi-finals in five years between 1998 and 2002, whilst Rusedski won 15 titles and went one better reaching a grand slam final at the US open. Both will be hoping that fellow Britain can go one better and overcome the huge burden of expectation and win a grand slam. Murray, a winner of 5 ATP titles at the age of 20 is well on track to eclipse both Greg and Tim, whether he will ever win a grand slam we will have to wait and see. 

Tim Henman shocked his vast number of critics yesterday by defeating 27th seed and world number 27 Dmitry Tursunov in his first round US Open match.

Henman did well defending against the Russian; Tursunov is one of the ATPs hardest hitters, has a 5-1 win record against Henman and has never lost in the first round of the US Open.  Until yesterday.  Henman fought through the match, continually playing up at the net and despite his aging and aching back he eventually outplayed Tursunov in four sets to win a place in the second round.  The score was 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The former world number four will retire at the end of September after Britain’s Davis Cup tie against Croatia at Wimbledon.  Speaking after his US Open match, Henman said:

“The whole nature of the match, not only the level of play but the support, the atmosphere out on a big court, was fantastic… I appreciate the situation, this being my last tournament.”

Henman will face Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsgonga in his second round match.

“I was a good player who worked hard, gave everything I had to my profession and I don’t think you could ask for more than that.”

British tennis star Tim Henman has announced that he will retire next month, his last match being at the Davis Cup tie with Croatia. 

“I want to take a step back from the tennis world.”

After 14 years playing professionally, the 32 year old former British number 1 has admitted his injuries have been getting the better of him.  Until 2 summers ago Tim was still in the worlds top 10, but for the first time in 12 years he will drop out of the top 100 if he loses his match with Dmitry Tursunov in his US Open first round match.  Speaking abot his injuries he said:

“The way that it’s affected my performance has obviously made my life a little bit harder and probably a little bit less enjoyable…  It’s absolutely the right time for me.  I have no doubts whatsoever.  It’s not necessarily the end, but I’d like to think it’s a new beginning.”

Two things have been key in his decision to retire.  Firstly, he has had a painful back condition for a few years now, and when he started playing on the hard courts again last month in Washington the pain was too much and aided his decision to stop.  He has decided that he would like to spend more time with his family, and the fact that his lovely wife, Lucy, is expecting their third child next month pretty much finalised his decision to retire sooner rather than later.

“I will miss the competition the most.”

So after the US Open, his final Grand Slam, Henman will play his final match at the All England Club in next month’s Davis Cup tie, much as his former rival Greg Rusedski did earlier this year.  Throughout his career, Tim has won 10 ATP Tour titles.  However his dream of winning a major grand slam tournament, especially Wimbledon, has always eluded him and he has suffered defeats in six grand slam semi-finals.  He admitted he originally wanted to play one more Wimbledon next year but changed his mind because of health issues with his knee and bad back.

“I played some of my best tennis at Wimbledon and that’s something I’ll always be proud of. My record was good there but it was always a goal of mine to win the tournament. Am I disappointed I didn’t win it? Yes I am. But when I reflect on my career, I was always able to maximize my potential. This was as good as I could have been.”

When asked if he was do it all over again, would he do anything differently Tim replied:

“Yeah, of course, against Goran.”

For those who dont know, in 2001 Tim came within two points of becoming the first British man to reach the Wimbledon final since Bunny Austin in 1938.  However he ended up losing a five-set marathon game to eventual champion Goran Ivanisevic in a match that was played over three days because of rain.

It seems likely that Tim will concentrate on his property empire, and perhaps even a coaching or mentoring role with the LTA.  He has been doing that informally for quite a while though, particularly with the Andy and Jamie Murray, who have both benefited from Tims support.  With both Tim and Greg Rusedskis retiring, men’s British tennis must now move on to a new era in which rising star Andy Murray is expected to dominate.

“Hopefully the pieces have been put in place for the next generation and Andy, fingers crossed, will play a big part in that.”

The mens singles draw for the US Open have been announced.Murray is seeded number 19 and has been drawn in the same quarter as the likes of Marcos Baghdatis, James Blake, Nikolai Davydenko and Tommy Haas.  However with a small strike of luck, Murray has been drawn against an unknown qualifier in the first round.  His draw is as follows:

1. Qualifier
2. Bjorkman (expected)
3. Canas (expected)

Tim Henmans draw is a bit more difficult though.  He has been paired with 27th seed Dmitry Tursunov in the first round.  This will prove to be a tough match for the former British no. 1.

The world number 1, Roger Federer, defending champion who is hoping to win for the fourth consecutive year looks like he is going to have an easy time of it for the first few rounds at least.  He has been drawn against a qualifier in the first round, and may face a second qualifier in round 2.  Talk about favouritism…

Well, yesterdays events at the Cincinnati Masters saw an exciting start to the tournament.Tim Henman lost to Argentintian Juan Ignacio Chela; his chronic back problem was bothering him throughout the match, which wasn’t helped by Chela who made the 32 year old run about that court – a lot.  There wont be any all British second round match now.

Nicholas Keifer defeated former world no. 1 Marat Safin 6-3, 7-6.  In the first set Safin lost the first 5 games to Keifer and never really recovered from that.

Carlos Moya defeated David Nalbandian and will face Novak Djokovic in the second round.

But today, Andy Murray plays Marcos Baghdatis which should be a good match.  Lets hope Andy’s wrist is healing well; he’ll need to be on good form to beat Baghdatis.  This match is followed by Mario Ancic (the 23 year old has also been out a lot this season after he was diagnosed with mononucleosis).  Ancic is playing 12th seed Tommy Haas, which also promises to be a good watch.

End of day results for Monday are below.

J Chela (ARG) d [WC] T Henman (GBR) 6-4 3-6 6-3
[13] M Youzhny (RUS) d D Hrbaty (SVK) 6-3 6-1
J Melzer (AUT) d I Karlovic (CRO) 7-6(4) 7-6(2)
J Nieminen (FIN) d [Q] V Spadea (USA) 6-2 6-0
N Almagro (ESP) d F Mayer (GER) 7-6(5) 6-4
C Moya (ESP) d D Nalbandian (ARG) 7-6(4) 7-6(2)
F Verdasco (ESP) d F Volandri (ITA) 6-2 6-2
N Kiefer (GER) d M Safin (RUS) 6-3 7-6(1)
[11] I Ljubicic (CRO) d [Q] A Delic (USA) 1-6 7-6(3) 6-3
[10] T Berdych (CZE) d B Becker (GER) 6-3 6-4
[16]D Ferrer (ESP) d [WC] J Isner (USA) 7-6(3) 6-3
[WC] S Querrey (USA) d M Gicquel (FRA) 7-5 7-5 6-4