Andy Murray and Scottish tennis

[maryb]

Just read a comment that somebody had suggested that Brad team up with the Big Yin. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D LMAO. The Big Yin would throw a punch in the first week. LMAO.

[maryb]

Wiltshire - Sport News

Magic Michael tipped to fill Murray's boots
By Nick Mashiter

Aldbourne tennis starlet Michael Puttick has been tipped to follow in the footsteps of Andy Murray - and he is already setting his sights on the professional tour.

The 12-year-old has spent the last four months at the LTA high performance centre at Bath University where he combines education at Ralph Allen School in Bath with an intensive tennis programme.

The confident youngster, who won the Ariel Indoor Series U12 tournament for the south east region in March and the U14 boys Pewsey Junior Open title in April, is hoping his hard work will pay off to see him become a world class player.

"I would love to be a professional in the future," said Puttick, currently ranked second in the county behind Samm Butler.

"It has been hard and they work you really hard but I already feel much fitter and am reaping the benefits.

"I play in tournaments most weekends so tennis is basically seven days a week for me but it is not a problem as I am fully committed to the sport."

Bath's director of tennis Barry Scollo, who played on the ATP Tour, believes the Wiltshire-born youngster has every opportunity of one day achieving what British No.1 Murray has.

"Michael is showing great signs for the future and has really benefited from everyone here at the academy," said Scollo.

"He has a bright future and I am sure everybody at the academy will be looking to help him achieve as much as possible.

"My aim for this academy is to get players good enough to break into the top 200 in the world and now we are a HPC the likes of Michael have a great opportunity to do that.

"I always tell the players they don't know how lucky they are. I want to create a buzz around the game and produce the best players - it is an exciting time for everyone involved."

And Puttick, who began his blossoming career at Ramsbury Tennis Club, is already dreaming of mixing it with his favourite players on the ATP Tour.

"My favourite player is Marat Safin, I don't really know why but I have always liked him. (LMAO ;D)

"Andy Murray is good and it's nice to see him doing well but he is not my favourite." (LMAO ;D)

[davis]

Great job, Andy!!!!!!!!!!!! ;D ;D ;D Now win the whole tourney, please!

Murray reaches Qatar Open final

Andy Murray continued his superb start to 2008 with a straight-sets win over top seed Nikolay Davydenko in the Qatar Open semi-finals.

The British number one beat the world number four 6-4 6-3 to set up a final against Stanislas Wawrinka.

Murray, 20, made a nervous start, dropping his opening service game.

But once Murray found his form midway through the first set, Davydenko's fell away badly and the Briton secured a comfortable win in one hour 23 minutes.

"He started off well," said Murray. "I hung in pretty well and turned it around. I didn't serve well in the first set, but was better in the second.

"I had to try and change the rhythm. I tried to rush him a bit."

Davydenko said: "I made too many mistakes playing from the baseline when I was up 3-1 in the first set.

"Murray served well. Compared to the last time here, his game was the same but I committed too many errors."

Murray has lost both his previous meetings with Wawrinka - the world number 36 who overcame Ivan Ljubicic 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 in the other semi-final.

However, both those matches came early in Murray's career and the in-form Scot will be a firm favourite in Saturday's final, which begins at 1530 GMT.

"I have lost twice to him, but hopefully my experience playing a final will work for me," said Murray. "It would be nice to start the year with a win."

Murray, who lost to Ljubicic in last year's Qatar final, is set to break in to the world's top 10 if he can win the fourth title of his career. ;D

[maryb]

Wahay, well done. The boy's on track again.

[jenhatter06]

Andy gets drawn to play Fed in the first round of Dubai :-P

[sabz]

oooo how happy am i!!!! MURRAY JUST BEAT THE SMURF IN DUBAI!!!!! ;D YAY!

here is the article from eurosport:
uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/03032008/58/atp-tour-murray-defeats-federer.html

Andy Murray defeated defending champion Roger Federer 6-7 6-3 6-4 at the Dubai Championships to hand the world number one his first opening round defeat in nearly four years.
The 12-times Grand Slam champion was last beaten in the first round of a tournament at the Cincinnati Masters in August 2004.

"Each time I've played him, I've stepped up my game," Murray said after recording his second victory against the Swiss.

Murray, who has won two tournaments this year, did not face a break point in the one-hour, 54-minute match.

The Scot went down in the first set despite leading 5-2 at one point in the tiebreak.

However he produced an array of wonderful strokes to take the second set 6-3 after earning the first break of the match.

In the deciding set he then held his nerve, continuing his run of accurate shot-making to break again and triumph 6-4.

Murray faces Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in the second round.

KEEP IT UP!!!! ;D

[helloticky]

wow wow wow Murray he did it again ;D ;D & 10 aces...congrat ......sorry to Fedex too......

[maryb]

Awww Sabz - Rog is Maestro, not Smurf. Well done to Andy though - I forgot to put the bloody match in to the planner. Only remembered this morning when I got on the train for work. Too late. I'll check out the BBC digi replay - chances are the match is on that).

With any luck, I'll be snowed in tomorrow. Winter has finally arrived. Big time. We've probably got more snow now than Moscow.

[sabz]

Mar 3, 2008 23:50:04 GMT 3 maryb said:

Awww Sabz - Rog is Maestro, not Smurf.

sorry a bit harsh i know just refreshing to see someone else win (especially andy! )

here is their interview:

"I've been really mentally weak for such a long time and not held up in pressure situations, and I showed tonight that was not going to be an issue," Murray, who has won two tournaments this year, said.

"I stayed calm the whole way through the match.

"In terms of my serving, that was pretty special today. I've worked on my serve a lot and to beat Federer in a three-set match and not have a break point against you, I don't think that's happened to him for a long time."

Murray also credited his success to his mental strength.

"The most important thing is just to believe you can win the match," he said.

"I think too many times on the tour some guys try to play almost too well, and it's really important to stay patient and not make rash decisions early in the match.

"I definitely didn't do that today."

Federer was playing just his second tournament of the year, and his first match since losing to eventual champion Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals of the Australian Open in January.

"It was a tough match, obviously. It was always going to be a tough draw," said Federer.

"He's played many matches already this season, whereas obviously I come in a little bit cold.

"I knew it was important to get off to a good start but it wasn't enough tonight. He did well to hang in there and it was a tough match in the end.

"My expectations are not sky-high at this point. Obviously I haven't played much so you don't go in with any expectations.

"You hope to get past the first round, no matter if it's a guy with no ranking or a guy ranked basically in the top 10.

"I wish I would have maybe had a little bit easier draw, but under the circumstances I felt I played okay. It wasn't a bad match, which is the only positive thing out of tonight."

Murray is currently ranked 11th in the world, but has flirted with the top 10 for many months.

haha "flirted with the top 10" thats a nice way of putting it



btw mary - is it snowing up there in the land of the scots??? is freezing down here!!! (but it hasnt snowed )

[sabz]

Federer unimpressed by Murray progress wats this all about ey?? (dont shout at me mary but doesnt sound like a graceful loser to me )

Roger Federer was beaten by Andy Murray but believes the Briton's game has not really changed since they first met on the ATP Tour in 2005.

The world number one first met Murray in the Thailand Open final 2-1/2 years ago when the Briton was ranked 109th.

Although Federer won that contest, Murray has beaten him in their other two encounters.

In the last two seasons, the 20-year-old Murray has claimed five titles but Federer was not very impressed by the world number 11's tactics on Monday.

"I don't think he's changed his game a whole lot since I played him in the Bangkok final," the Swiss said after he was beaten 6-7 6-3 6-4 in the first round of the Dubai Championships by Murray.

"Not that I'm disappointed but I really would have thought he would have changed it in some ways."

Federer added that Murray would have to work very hard to sustain a career at the top of men's tennis.

"It sort of works for him but he's going to have to grind very hard for the next few years if he keeps playing this way," said Federer.

"He stands way far behind on the court and (that means) you've got to do a lot of running, and he tends to wait a lot for the mistake of the opponent.

"I gave him the mistakes today but I think overall, over a 15-year career, you want to look to win a point more often than for the guy (opponent) to miss.

"That's what served me well over the years but who knows, he might surprise us all and do it for 20 years."

Murray was surprised by Federer's comments.

"You do different things against different players." said the Scot.

"You go and watch my match against Rafael Nadal at the (2007) Australian Open, and I was playing pretty close to the baseline in that match and taking a lot of risks because I think that's the right way to play against him," said Murray referring to his five-set defeat by the Spaniard.

"Against Federer I don't think that's the right way to play. I'm not going to play that sort of game against someone that defends as well as Federer does."

He also hit back by highlighting the improvements he has made to his game.

"My serve is clearly much better than it was two years ago," he said. "I feel quicker and stronger around the court. Mentally I feel like I'm better.

"But there are still some things in my game that I want to improve and it does take some time to put them into the match court. I feel like I've started to do that this year."

[SAFINNO1]

I would not take this comments very seriously - how can he talk about someone's game that he has just lost to - i mean he always has this break after AO for last 4 years and has never lost.

As for the comments regarding Murray he said the same thing about Novak a year ago so it par for the meastro!

[maryb]

LMAO. He may be the Maestro, but he IS still human remember guys. He's entitled to comment on his opponent's game - and maybe he did make a lot of mistakes that Murray got lucky with. I didn't get to see the match, so I can't comment. ;D Maybe it just comes across like sour grapes - but I don't think that would be the intention. LMAO. I can't really see Maestro being a bad loser.

PS Sabz, the snow is finally clearing.

[sabz]

Murray stutters past Verdasco

Andy Murray overcame a scrappy performance to advance to the quarter-finals of the Dubai Championships with a 6-3 3-6 7-6 (5) win over Spain's Fernando Verdasco.

Murray will next face Nikolay Davydenko in the last eight after the Russian eased past Jan Hernych 6-1 6-4.

Fresh off of a masterful opening round win over world number one Roger Federer, Murray looked lackadaisical from the start against the Spanish number seven, who saved three match points in a third-set tie-break before finally succumbing.


awww the snow is clearing - where in scotland r u mary??

[maryb]

Scrappy? Hey, maybe Maestro was right ... LMAO. ;D

Sabz, I live about 25 minutes (train journey) outside Glasgow city centre in a house that will be celebrating its 102nd birthday this year. Awww. Cows used to use the road outside the house ... now it's huge friggin' Tesco lorries ... I dodge them in the morning trying to cross the road to get to the train station. I've got a book that shows the area over the last 150 years. My street looks great with the horse and cart in it ...

Wish they were still there. Progress? Hmm, I'll reserve judgement ... I think I'm getting old. I'm getting more and more irritated by modern life. 2 acres, that's all I ask for ... and chickens. ;D

[maryb]

'I'll reserve judgement?' What am I saying? Modern life sucks. Self-indulgent, destructive ...but there's still lots of good things going on. But not enough ...

It's official. I'm a greetin' faced old bugger now.

Excellent. ;D I can get away with it on account of age ... even though it's valid.

I think I'll go and noise up some people tomorrow ...