British tennis player Andy Murray will take on world number one Novak Djokovic in the Final of the Sony Ericsson Open or the Miami Masters after getting a walkover to the Final when his Semi Final opponent, Spanish tennis ace Rafael Nadal had to withdraw due to a knee injury. The Djoker defeated Juan Monaco 6-0, 7-6 in the other Semi Final match to set up another meeting with Murray, their 13th career meeting and second in 4 years in the Final of the Miami Masters where he was beaten by the Scotsman in 2009.
Due to the injury sustained by Nadal, Murray was left extremely disappointed at not being able to work and test out the plans that he and his coach Ivan Lendl had worked on throughout the last couple of months. He also received a walkover in the third round of the Miami Masters when Milos Raonic pulled out of the match and this means that the final against Djokovic will only be the 4th match that Andy Murray has played in the entire competition.
According to Murray, he had been working with his coach Lendl on some plans that had been specifically devised for the top three of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer and he would have loved to work on them in the match against Nadal. Murray, who has dropped only one set on his way to the final, however, doesn’t believe that he will be behind Djokovic in the match considering that he is the fresher of the two.
Andy Murray did mention his win against The Djoker at the Miami Masters in 2009 but was quick to point out that both of them were young at that time and now, it will be an all different ball game in the Final.
Great Britain Davis Cup team captain Leon Smith has said that the absence of Andy Murray from the squad that will face Slovakia in the Scottish city of Glasgow, Murray’s home town, means that the team has had to work hard ahead of the tie, knowing that all eyes will be on the team and how they manage to do without their star player in the lineup.
Smith also added that the other lads have also taken this as an inspiration and they want to excel in the absence of the British number one as they try to make a name for themselves ahead of the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Smith took charge of the team in April of 2010 and oversaw the team’s promotion, meaning that Great Britain are now just one step away from returning to the prestigious World Group of the Davis Cup, where they played for the last time when Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski led the British charge.
Smith knows that the pressure is on the team ahead of the tie without their leading player in Andy Murray but speaking to the journalists ahead of the tie, Smith said that they had the team together for almost a week now and they have trained hard enough to avoid any upset. He further added that without Murray in their side, the team will give even more importance to their opponents than they usually do and that will be a good thing for them.
James Ward has been drafted into the side as the replacement for the world number four and the team captain is doing everything so that the spotlight stays away from the youngster. He said that Ward is not filling the shoes of Andy Murray and should not be expected to perform at the same level as Murray.
World number 4 and three time finalist of Grand Slam events, Andy Murray is looking to go one step ahead this season and lay his hands on the coveted title of Grand Slam Winner. The 24 year old Scotsman aims to win the first Grand Slam of the tournament, the Australian Open which begins Down Under in a couple of Weeks’ time. Murray has been training extremely hard for the start of the season and he even gave his Christmas celebrations a miss and instead chose to run a few miles on the beach near his apartment in Florida.
2011 has been a wonderful year for the top ranked Brit during which he won five titles on the ATP Tour and also reached the final of the Australian Open where he lost to eventual world number one Novak Djokovic. But Andy Murray believes that his prime weakness has been his ability in not being able to grind out results, particularly in crunch matches. He failed to win important matches in Grand Slam events as well leading to his ouster before the latter stages of the tournament and he is looking to improve on that statistic.
Murray, who became the third ranked player in the world, did not play in the year ending ATP Masters Series leading him to drop back into fourth place but he is not bothered about the rankings as long as he can get his hands on a Grand Slam trophy and he has targeted the Australian Open first.
The 2012 season will begin for Andy Murray at Brisbane at the Brisbane International as he looks to get back into match shape before the start of the Grand Slam event on the 16th of January, 2012. Murray will take to the court as the number one seed.
Hailing from a family of tennis players, it would be apt to say that this British tennis star has got tennis embedded in his genes! Timothy (Henry) Henman is the genius we are talking about. He was born in Oxford, England on 6 September 1974. Anthony, his father was a solicitor and Jane, a dress designer.
When most children were finger-painting at the age of 2 ½ years old, Timothy or better known as Tim, was swinging his tennis racket on the family grass court. Both his parents introduced tennis to Tim and his siblings, Michael and Richard at an early age. His mother herself was a junior Wimbledon competitor. His maternal grandparents, Henry and Susan Billington also played at the Wimbledon. His grandfather represented Britain in the Davis Cup in 1948, 1950-51. His great grandmother, Ellen Stanwell-Brown, was reputedly the first woman to serve over-arm at Wimbledon in 1901.
Tim Henman was privately educated at the Dragon School, Oxford. But Tim had decided on a career in tennis at the age of six itself. He passed his 10 GCSE exams from Reed’s School, Cobham, Surrey, with a tennis scholarship. David Lloyd coached him among many other budding British tennis players in his teen years. He worked his way up the world-ranking ladder to reach top 200 in 1994 and among the top 30 in 1996. The same year he brought home the silver medal at the Atlanta Olympics in the men’s doubles category.
The year 1997 saw him emerge as a class player winning his first ATP tour title in the Sydney international. He has a total of 15 ATP titles, 11 of which are single titles and the rest, doubles. Tim Henman caught the attention of tennis lovers around the world as he made his way to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon 1996 for the first time but lost to Tod Martin. He has appeared in the Wimbledon quarterfinals three times after that and the semi-final four times, but failed each time. Tim Henman is also the first person ever to be disqualified from it in 1995 when he thrashed a ball on the ball girl in a fit. His career was at its peak in july 2002 standing 4th in the ATP world rankings. In 2004, he became the first British man to reach the Roland Garros semi-finals since Mike Sangster in 1963 and also the US Open semis in 1997 after Greg Rusedski. In 2003 Henman bagged his most prestigious, the first and only ATP Masters Series title, winning the Paris Masters against Andrei Pavel defeating the likes of Andy Roddick and Roger Federer. On June 2004 he was awarded the ‘Officer of Order of British Empire’ for his services to tennis by Queen Elizabeth II.
By 2006, injuries started affecting his tennis career. He announced retirement on 23rd august 2007 and took to golfing. He served as chairman for the ATP charities and also his personal charity, kids at heart. He married his long time girlfriend, Lucy Heald in 1999 and has three daughters, Rose Elizabeth, Olivia and Grace. He now enjoys a quiet life in London, while fans still continue to see him as Britain’s hope in the Wimbledon.
A little girl was born in Melbourne, Australia on 21 January 1994 to a professional basketball player and an oil executive. She was named Laura Robson, who according to her parents was a tennis enthusiast from a very young age and couldn’t wait to hold the tennis racket. At the age of six, she moved to UK and a year later she joined the Junior Tennis Academy. The world could not remain oblivious to this little miracle; she got signed by management companies like Adidas, Wilson Sporting Goods etc. at a very early age of ten. She was home schooled while training under Martijn Bok, Carl Maes and Nigel Sears.
Laura Robson plays left handed with a two handed backhand. One of her best qualities is that she hits the ball really hard, which is maybe one of the reasons why she is currently ranked 185. The junior ITF tour in the year 2007 was the first tournament she played and reached the quarterfinals. In the same year she made her appearance at the Wimbledon girls’ event as an unseeded player. She defeated the top seed Melanie Oudin to reach finals where she again defeated Noppawan Lertcheewkarn to claim her first Grand Slam title. She was the first British player to win the title in 23 years. The media called her the “Queen of Wimbledon” and the “new darling“of the British tennis.
A great debut made her a star and won her praises from prominent tennis players. In the year 2008, she made her debut in the senior ITF tour where she had to retire from the tournament due to an injury while playing Marina Melnikova. She was given many wildcard entries but wasn’t very successful until she again entered the ITF tour in Sunderland. She defeated the third seed in the quarterfinals and cleared the next two rounds to win the title at the age of 14. In the year 2009, she entered as a wildcard entrant at the ladies’ singles event of the Wimbledon championships.
Robson also made it into the US open, through wildcard entry in the qualifying tournament but lost in the final round. She had partnered with Andy Murray and had made it into the finals in the Hopman cup. In the year 2010 she also played in the Australian Open as a wildcard entrant. In the same year she also played in Wimbledon, UNICEF open and many others. In the year 2011, she changed her coach and moved to Paris, making it her new base. Due to injury, she didn’t play in any of the tournaments till March. She had a great comeback though, in the tournament at Indian Harbor beach. She played her best in the semi final, even though she lost.
Laura Robson is a rising star. All the success and the limelight she has had in her career, has definitely not affected the down-to-earth person she is. A person with talent and the right attitude is a rare mix; she is definitely one of the rarest.
Greg Rusedski was born in Canada on 6 September 1973 to a British mother and a German born father. In 1980s he was a tennis star in Canada. He later began playing for Britain. He retired after a commendable professional career in the year 2007.
His first singles title was at the Hall of Fame Championships, Newport, Rhode Island. In 1995, he decided to adopt British citizenship which angered Canada. He was also accused of having used all the country’s resources and never returning the gratitude, though he later paid Tennis Canada, a huge amount of money to keep the scores settled. Days before the Wimbledon tournament, the International Tennis Federation allowed him to play for Britain. He, from then on became a British player. Unfortunately, he lost in the second round of the tournament.
In 1997, he reached the final of US open but sadly lost, finishing ranked World no.4. In the year 1998, Tim Henman stepped on Rusedski to claim the title of Britain’s best tennis player. In 1999, Greg won the Grand Slam cup. He and Henman became one of the biggest rivals which, according to the rumours, forced the British to like this sport even more. They both had almost the same level of success in their professional life but Henman enjoyed more limelight than him. He has sparked controversies, for example, in US open year 2002, he played Pete Sampras in the second round and called him “half step slow” and in the 2003 Wimbledon tournament while playing Andy Roddick, he swore at the umpire. The year 2005 didn’t bring him much luck but he played some of the greatest players like Andre Agassi. In the year 2006, Henman and Rusedski collided head on head in the US open final, they put on an epic fight but sadly this time he was outdone by Henman. In the year 2007 he finally retired. Injuries in his last few seasons created a setback in his career life. As it can be noted, Greg had a controversial career too. Some even commented that he does not possess the qualities of a good sportsman and lacks grace.
He certainly was a good tennis player but also worked in other completely different areas. He has owned a space in British tabloid newspaper, The Sun and also has done analysis of 2003, 2007 Australian Open and 2007 French Open for the British television channel, Eurosport. He also was the commentator for BBC during the 2007 Wimbledon. He has appeared in a few reality shows and has also acted as a tennis player in one of the television serials. He is not only a tennis enthusiast but also a big supporter of Arsenal Football team. He is married to Lucy Connor and has two kids.
Greg Rusedski made his own story; he never seemed to have copied anyone. His “devil -may -care“ attitude has won him admirers and enemies. He had an impressive career life and also post retirement, his life has remained interesting.
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April 4, 2012 12:23 pm | 
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