7 Reasons to Support Rather Than Hate Andy Murray

1

Shot Variety and Return of Serve

In a time when players often try to just overpower their opponents Andy Murray's style is fascinating to watch. His mixing up of pace, spin and slice gives us some exciting tennis as he constructs his points. The 2012 year has also shown him becoming more aggressive which has given us some beautiful shots to watch.

Andy Murray also has one of the best return of serves in the game. It is astonishing to see some of the serves he returns and even more astonishing to watch some of the winners he can strikes from a fast serve. A great and recent example of this was the match point against Tsonga in the Wimbledon semi finals.

2

Success under huge pressure

Andy Murray has faced the greatest pressure of any Tennis player in the open era. It is the price he’s paid for representing Great Britain. A nation that hadn’t seen a singles champion since the often over looked Virginia Wade in 1977. But as we are constantly reminded no British man had won a singles title since 1936.

Andy Murray has been alone in the men’s singles draw for most of his career. With the next best British man being ranked over 200. Untill this year Britiain has also lacked any notable success in the women’s singles.

Which has left all of the focus resting on Murray. If we compare this to some of the other big names in tennis:

Roger Federer has had

Stanislas Wawrinka whose reached a career high ranking of number 9.

Martina Hingis who reached a career high ranking of number 1 and won 5 single Grand Slam titles.

Rafael Nadal has had

David Ferrer who’s reached a career high ranking of number 4 and is still in the top 10.

Carlos Moya who reached a career high ranking of number 9.

Novak Djokervic has had

Janko Tipsarevic whose reached a career high ranking of number 8 and is still in the top 10.

Ana Ivanovic whose reached a career high ranking of number 1.

Jo Wilfred Tsonga has had

Michael Llordra whose reached a career high ranking of number 21 and has won 3 Grand slam doubles titles.

Andy Roddick has had

Serena Williams who had 13Grand Slam titles before he retired

Venus Williams with her 7 Grand Slam titles

John Isner whose reached a career high ranking of number 9.

Mardy Fish whose reached a career high ranking of number 7.

Whilst Andy Murray has had

Tim Henman who reached a career high ranking of number 4, but retired in 2007. Since then it’s just been him for the men and until 2012 no British woman had passed the 3^rd round of a Grand Slam or won a WTA title.

Also along with Australia, France and America, Britain has even greater expectations on its players as the host countries of the Grand Slams. But none of these countries have had such a long drought in Tennis success. At least Britain has had some success with the 2007 mixed doubles from Andy’s brother Jamie Murray. Also Jonathan Marry won a Wimbledon title in the 2012 men’s doubles.

3

On Court Demeanour

He is often criticised for his yelling, but he always shows respect to officials and other players. He says he directs frustration at his support box because its better than directing it at people on the court. It is not because he blames them.

4

Personality

Humility is a rarity amongst the big sports stars but Murray has always shown it. He gives praise to his opponents and isn’t quick to make excuses if he fails. He may not be as loud or outgoing as some other players but it’s refreshing to see a quieter and humbler personality at the top of a sport. Also considering the over reaction to his England joke it’s not surprising that he now acts very serious with the press. All we have to do is re watch the emotional Wimbledon final defeat and  the Olympic Gold triumph to see how passionate he is.

5

Work ethic

No matter how many disappointments Murray has faced he has always worked hard to be the best he can be. As testified by his coaches, his friends and his peers who respect him. His dedication to training and tournaments has been shown by his recently missing the Olympic closing ceremony. He will also miss the BBC’s sports personality of the year award to concentrate on his training.

6

He is not anti English

It’s good to address this, as amazingly it is still a major criticism. He made one joke about the England football team on the radio after being teased about the Scottish team performance. This turned into an anti English story. Unfortunately people leapt onto this rumour rather than look at the discussion itself. A small amount of research will show his real attitude and that it’s best not to read the trashy newspapers and magazines.

He says he is proud to be both Scottish and British which is fortunate to all of the English, Welsh and Irish tennis fans who want a home hero to support. It was also clear how proud he was to represent Team GB at the Olympics.

7

He inspires

After overcoming some of the greatest tennis players of all time this year he has inspired a new generation to sports. Tennis clubs are reporing increased numbers. Also the Murray family has an interesting new sporting initiative called Set4Sport to encourage people from a young age.

Here is a link to the initiative Set4Sport