WHO IS ANDY MURRAY

Andy Murray

Who is Andy Murray?

Andy Murray is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. Murray has three Grand Slam titles to his name—two at Wimbledon (2013, 2016) and one at the US Open (2012). He has been a finalist at 11 majors.

Murray is held in high regard in Britain for restoring it as a force to reckon with on the men’s circuit for the first time since the early 1900s.

Andy Murray’s early life

Murray began playing tennis at age three and was initially coached by his mother Judy alongside his older brother Jamie, a professional tennis player who specialises in doubles. Judy was herself a tennis player before she became a coach. At age five, he played his first competitive tournament and by age eight he was competing with adults. At age 15, Murray moved to Barcelona in Spain to improve his tennis at the Sánchez-Casal Academy.

Professional tennis career

Murray won the Junior US Open in September 2004 and turned pro at age 17. He kicked off his career around the time tennis greats Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal had set themselves up as the players to beat on the men’s circuit. He tasted early success on the ATP tour by breaking into the top 10 in 2007 when he was 19 years old.

By 2010, Murray and reigning world No. 1 player Novak Djokovic had joined Federer and Nadal to form the Big Four. The group won the lion’s share of titles through the 2010s. While Murray struggled against the rest of the Big Four at first, he saw his first breakthrough in 2012 by winning the men’s singles gold medal at the London Olympics after beating Federer in a three-set rout. A month later, he won the US Open after defeating Djokovic in an epic five-set battle in the final. With this title, he became the first British person to win a Grand Slam since 1977 and the first man since 1936.

Murray made it to the Grand Slam finals another six times between 2013 and 2016, of which he won two at Wimbledon. In 2015, he and his brother led the British Davis Cup team to a title. Murray reached the height of his career in 2016, when he made the final at three Grand Slams, including the win at Wimbledon. In the same year, he defended his title at the 2016 Rio Olympics. With this, he became the only male with two Olympic gold medals in singles. Continuing the strong run in 2016, Murray clinched the world No. 1 ranking for the first time. He also took the year-end No. 1 ranking by winning his sole ATP Finals against Djokovic.

Murray was ranked world No. 1 for 41 weeks. Between July 2008 and October 2017, he was ranked in the top 10 for all but one month. Murray has 46 ATP singles titles under his belt.

Since 2016, Murray has struggled with several injuries, including a lingering hip issue. He fell out of the top 100 in 2018.