Andrew Murray Popular Books

Andrew Murray Biography & Facts

Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray has won three Grand Slam singles titles, two at Wimbledon (in 2013 and 2016) and one at the US Open (in 2012), and has reached eleven major finals. Murray was ranked in the top 10 for all but one month from July 2008 through to October 2017, and was no lower than world No. 4 in eight of the nine year-end rankings during that span. Murray has won 46 ATP Tour singles titles, including 14 Masters 1000 events and two gold medals at the Summer Olympics. Originally coached by his mother Judy alongside his older brother Jamie, Murray moved to Barcelona at age 15 to train at the Sánchez-Casal Academy. He began his professional career around the time Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal established themselves as the two dominant players in men's tennis. Murray had immediate success on the ATP Tour, making his top 10 debut in 2007 at age 19. By 2010, Murray and Novak Djokovic had joined Federer and Nadal in the Big Four, the group of players who dominated men's tennis during the 2010s. Murray initially struggled against the rest of the Big Four, losing his first four major finals (three to Federer and one to Djokovic). He made his major breakthrough in 2012 by defeating Djokovic to win the US Open, becoming the first British major singles champion since Virginia Wade in 1977, and the first male champion since Fred Perry in 1936. A month earlier, he had won the men's singles gold medal against Federer at the 2012 London Olympics, and a silver medal in mixed doubles. From 2013 through 2016, Murray reached another six major finals. He won two of these encounters, at Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016. Murray had his career-best season in 2016. During that year, Murray made three major finals, winning Wimbledon. He also defended his title at the 2016 Rio Olympics to become the only player, male or female, to win two Olympic gold medals in singles. Murray also became world No. 1 for the first time that season, and clinched the year-end No. 1 ranking by winning his only Tour Finals title over Djokovic. Since 2016, he has struggled with various injuries and fell out of the top 100 in 2018 due to only seldom playing on tour, though he has since slowly risen back to the top 50. Murray is an all-court player who excels in particular at defence, returning serve and constructing points. He is generally regarded as having one of the best and most consistent two-handed backhands on the ATP Tour. Murray is considered a national hero in the United Kingdom for re-establishing the country as a leading force in men's tennis for the first time since the early 20th century. He and his brother led the Great Britain Davis Cup team to a title in 2015. Murray has been outspoken as a feminist, and became only the second top-10 player in the history of the ATP Tour to have a female coach when he hired Amélie Mauresmo. Early and personal life Andy Murray was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of Judy Murray (née Erskine) and Willie Murray. His maternal grandfather, Roy Erskine, was a professional footballer in the late 1950s. Murray is a supporter of Hibernian Football Club, one of the teams his grandfather represented, and Arsenal Football Club. Murray began playing tennis at the age of three when his mother Judy took him to play on the local courts. He played in his first competitive tournament at age five and by the time he was eight he was competing with adults in the Central District Tennis League. Murray's elder brother, Jamie, is also a professional tennis player, playing on the doubles circuit, and became a multiple Grand Slam winner in the discipline (both men's and mixed). Murray grew up in Dunblane and attended Dunblane Primary School. He and his brother were present during the 1996 Dunblane school massacre, when Thomas Hamilton killed 16 children and a teacher before shooting himself; Murray took cover in a classroom. Murray says he was too young to understand what was happening and is generally reluctant to talk about it in interviews, but in his autobiography Hitting Back he states that he attended a youth group run by Hamilton and his mother gave Hamilton lifts in her car. Murray later attended Dunblane High School. Murray's parents split up when he was 10, with the boys living with their father while being mentored in tennis by their mother. He believes the impact this had on him could be the reason behind his competitive spirit. At 15, he was asked to train with Rangers Football Club at their School of Excellence, but declined, opting to focus on his tennis career instead. He then decided to move to Barcelona, Spain. There he studied at the Schiller International School and trained on the clay courts of the Sánchez-Casal Academy, coached by Pato Alvarez. Murray described this time as "a big sacrifice". His parents had to find £40,000 to pay for his 18-month stay there. In Spain, he trained with Emilio Sánchez, former world No. 1 doubles player. Murray was born with a bipartite patella, a condition in which the kneecap remains as two separate bones instead of fusing together in early childhood, but was not diagnosed until the age of 16. He has been seen holding his knee due to the pain caused by the condition and has withdrawn from tournaments because of it. In February 2013, Murray bought Cromlix House hotel near Dunblane for £1.8 million. The hotel had been closed since 2012, but Murray reopened it in April 2014. Later that month Murray was awarded the freedom of Stirling and received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Stirling in recognition of his services to tennis. Murray began dating Kim Sears, daughter of player-turned-coach Nigel Sears, in 2005. Their engagement was announced in November 2014, and they married on 11 April 2015 at Dunblane Cathedral in his home town, with the reception at his Cromlix House hotel. The couple previously lived in Oxshott, Surrey but in 2022, moved to nearby Leatherhead, to their newly constructed home that will accommodate their young family, consisting of their son and three daughters; the youngest, a girl was born in March 2021. He identifies himself as a feminist, and has been repeatedly vocal in his support for women players and coaches. He is also a vocal supporter of LGBT rights and supports same-sex marriage. In June 2020, he also lent his support to the Black Lives Matter movement; he and fellow players took a knee during the Schroders Battle of the Brits exhibition tournament. Just before the 2020 US Open, he said he was "fully supportive" of Naomi Osaka's decision to sit out her semifinal match at the Cincinnati Open in the wake of Jacob Blake's shooting in Wisconsin; Osaka ultimately played and won the match. Junior career Leon Smith, Murray's tennis coach from 11 to 17, described Murray as "unbelieva.... Discover the Andrew Murray popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Andrew Murray books.