He likes karting and football, he would watch Braveheart over and over again, he plays Eminem on his Ipod and he craves for a Pizza or a Haagen Dazs Cookies and Cream after every match. We’re obviously talking about one of the most famous tennis player in this land, if not the only one: Andy Murray.

 

Not only is he renowned for being one of the best British players in history but he also managed to stay in the top 5 for more than two years now. Tim Henman can’t show a better resume. Henman only stayed in 4th place for several weeks and never won more than one Masters 1000. The former English tennis hope was already 24 when he reached the Wimbledon semi-finals. Murray is only 22 and his achievements are far more impressive. 2008 saw his rise, 2009 confirmed the Scot was in the game. Andy Murray had a fairly good season but everyone’s waiting for him, with doubt or faith, this year. Why so much expectation for this season? Didn’t he prove himself enough already? Isn’t he leading the confrontation scores against Federer? Didn’t he beat Rafael Nadal two times this year, and once, albeit due to Nadal’s knock, in The Australian Open already this year? He is even about to replace Novak Djokovich as the leading player for Addidas.

 

Right, his wins were mostly because the other players were injured. So what? Andy Murray was not the most consistent tennis player in 2009, fair enough. But who was? (No need to mention the Federer exception, it will annoy everyone). The six best tennis players were all injured, tired and down by the end of the year. Nadal didn’t have a really prolific season, Novak Djokovich was just a shadow in the ATP and Andy Roddick was, well, himself. In this chaotic but interesting tennis setting, Andy Murray is quite decent. He even manages to get Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi to talk about him as the new potential tennis hero. They believe Murray is “on the verge of dominance” and that the Scot will win a couple of Grand Slams. “When it comes down to the Australian Open, he will be fit and ready to go” the tennis legend Pete Sampras has said. Amazing, isn’t it what everybody wants? Everybody is expecting him to win Wimbledon now, to prove that England is able to produce first-rate rated tennis players. Pete Sampras sensibly adds that Andy “is in a fishbowl in the UK with all the expectations and pressure." In addition to the patriotic duty, Andy Murray must win a Grand Slam in 2010 because “he is the only player in the world's top six who has not won a Grand Slam," André Agassi believes. So I suppose we all agree on these next points: yes Andy Murray is a great player, yes Andy Murray will somehow win a Grand Slam someday, yes Andy Murray is a tennis player so this season is decisive. This year will not only define the Scot’s career, it will define Rafael Nadal’s career and Andy Roddick’s career and the 170th player’s career too. André Agassi said that when you are a tennis player, “you are out there by yourself”. So why don’t we let Andy Murray do his job? I believe that this year, or the year after, he will show us, borrowing André Agassi’s words, what “a phenomenal competitor” he is. Pete Sampras is summing it up for us and states that Andy Murray “is up there in his early twenties, so he has many years to improve and learn, and he will break through and win a couple of majors.” If, of course, he doesn’t walk in his favourite tennis player footsteps. Fabrice Santoro’s.