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Football
LUIS SUAREZ
“
Luis is unpredictable, he’s hard to influence but that makes him special. - Ajax coach Marco van Basten
”
Let’s face it, Luis Suarez is a nutter. He’s also a brilliant football player who has a powerful shot, heading ability, great pace, fantastic work rate and superb skills. He also creates opportunities for his teammates. So he’s favourite for the ‘Player of the year’ awards in all categories, so what does he do a week before the voting? Go and bite someone. Brilliant. This act, after saying 2 days earlier during the annual Hillsborough remembrances, that he’s settled down and calmed. He’s had previous too with his former club Ajax, and that prompted a move to another country. This may well do the same with rumours of Bayern Munich and Real Madrid interested. Controversy has always followed Suarez. Born Luis Alberto Suárez Díaz, in Uruguay in 1987. Learning football on the streets, he joined Nacional at the age of 14. But by the age of 15, he was red carded for head butting the referee! After being found 70
drinking and partying at 16, Suarez was told that if he didn’t buck his ideas up, he wouldn’t play football again. This seems to have worked and by the age of 18 and his professional debut year he scored 10 goal in 27 games. He moved to Dutch club, Groningen at the age of 19 for €800,000 so he could be closer to his now wife, Sofia Balbi, who had moved to Barcelona. Suarez scored goals but he also had disciplinary problems, in one five game stretch he scored 5 goals but also gained 3 yellows and a red. He left Groningen under a cloud, taking the club to court, for blocking a potential move to Ajax in 2007.
he supposedly racially insulted Evra. Despite speaking Spanish to a Frenchman who isn’t fluent, using a common Spanish term, Suarez’s grandad being black, and that Suarez has done countless bits of charity work in South Africa in support of solidarity, he was banned for 6 games and fined.
At Ajax, he set up a sensational scoring partnership of some 50 goals with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. That was the good part of his game, the bad being the amount of yellow cards that he received and an altercation with teammate Albert Luque.
His actions were also brought into question at the 2010 World Cup when he deliberately saved an obvious goal that would have put Uruguay out. Saving it with 2 hands, he was instantly sent off against Ghana, but the Africans failed to take advantage of the subsequent penalty and the 10 men of Uruguay, who went on to win on penalties. Suárez later commented, “If I am obliged to stop a ball in the last minute and we win, then I will repeat the action.” Thanks to his scoring prowess he was made Ajax club captain by new manager, Martin Jol who wanted Suarez to spread his winning mentality and hard work ethic to the rest of the team. He scored 35 goals in 33 games in the league and a total of 49 for the season. He went on to score 100 goals for Ajax joining such names as Cruyff, Bergkamp and Van Basten in that list. His last act at Ajax was when his temper boiled over once more in November, 2010, where he bit PSV player Otman Bakkal, on the shoulder. After the biting incident and subsequent ban of 7 games, he moved to Liverpool in January, 2011 for 23 million. It has to be said though that he left Ajax on good terms, not wanting to go and being cheered at his last game. He won a Dutch League Champions medal for his half season there as well. Suarez also noted that he learnt much about real football at Ajax from the likes of Van Basten who taught him techniques to increase his deadliness in front of goal. At the 2011 Copa América, Suárez scored four goals for Uruguay as they won a record fifteenth Copa América and was named Player of the Tournament. Returning to the English Premiership, after running rings around him for much of the match he got into an altercation with Patrice Evra, where
This last season, Suarez has been the one single reason why Liverpool have managed to avoid being in the bottom half of the table. His 23 games in the league being invaluable and prompting talk of him winning the Player of the year awards. That is until he bit Chelsea’s Ivanovic. So what does the future hold for Luis Suarez? Openly booed by other professionals at the player awards, and a general feeling of being persecuted, it remains to be seen whether he will remain in England.
Player Profile Age: 26 Born: Salto, Uruguay Salary: 6.24 million GBP Club: Liverpool Car: Lexus
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Club profile: Chelsea Chances are Chelsea have won their second European title in 2 successive years. Last year it was the Champions League and now it’s the Europa league. After winning their first league title back in 1955, for the last 50 years they’ve been a cup team, winning nothing else. But luckily for them they were bought by Russian Oligarch Roman Abramovich back in 2003 and since then the skies the limit.
They have little history in comparison with the bigger clubs in the premiership and without the Russian owner they still wouldn’t have won the premiership, let alone the Champions league. Chelsea are based in Fulham, London. Created in 1905 they couldn’t call themselves after the local area as there was already a Fulham team and so after considering names such as London FC, Stamford Bridge FC and Kensington FC, they came up with Chelsea FC. Their stadium seats 41,836 fans ranking 6th in the Premier league. 10 years after their creation, Chelsea reached the FA Cup Final in 1915, losing to Sheffield United. Nothing of note happened until 1952 when England and ex Arsenal player, Ted Drake took over, and improved the training regime. With good, cheap buys they won their first league championship in 1955. Tommy Docherty took over after Drake, and won the league cup ten years later, in 1965. Dave Sexton won the 1970 FA Cup and the UEFA
Cup Winners Cup the following year. As for the next 25 years they were relegated twice, threatened with losing their stadium, their name was connected with the hooligan element and threatened with bankruptcy until Ken Bates bought the club for a pound. Bates turned things round, with Ruud Gullit taking over as manager in 1996. Due to Gullit’s connections he bought top international players and won the FA Cup in 1997. Gianlica Vialli then took over and he led Chelsea to win the League Cup and the Cup Winners Cup in 1998, the FA Cup in 2000 and qualification for the Champions League in 2002. In 2003, Ken Bates sold the club for £140 million, to the Russian and the rest is history. Investing £100 million in new players, the Russian wanted instant results and Claudio Ranieri wasn’t able to deliver.
Self titled ‘The Special One’, José Mourinho, from the Champions League winning Porto, became Chelsea best ever manager. In his first season and the acquisition of superb buys like Didier Drogba, Chelsea won back-to-back League titles in 2005 and 2006, the FA cup in 2007 and the League Cup in 2005 and 2007. Mourinho fell out with Abramovich however and left under a cloud.
Since then they’ve been sacking managers every year or so, which has done them no favours. Guus Hiddink won the FA cup in 2009 and was sacked. Felipe Scolari, manager of World Cup winning Brazil lasted 4 months and then Carlo Ancelloti won the league and FA Cup in 2010 which still wasn’t deemed good enough. Andre Villas Boas was then hired and promptly sacked 9 months later, with Roberto Di Matteo taking the team on to win the Champions league. His reward? The sack 4 months later and so, ‘Interim’ Manager, Rafa Benitez, took over for the remainder of this season. Abramovich’s investment has made sure that Chelsea are now seen as the 7th most valuable club in the world, at £473 million ($761 million) according to Forbes magazine valuation in April 2012. So with Benitez off in June, despite gaining third in the league, a FA cup semi final and the Europa League title, the manager’s job is up for grabs. This will be filled by Jose Mourinho who left 6 years previously, making amends with the Russian owner, Jose clearly wants to go back to a club where he is ‘loved’. Mourinho has enhanced his reputation since leaving Chelsea by winning the league title and Champions league with Inter Milan and the league and league cup with Real Madrid.
Though Mourinho is a top manager, whether he’ll be able to satisfy Abramovich’s hunger to win everything, is another matter. Time will tell. 73
THE END OF AN ERA
To be honest I didn’t expect Fergie (Sir Alex Ferguson) to resign. Major shocker! I thought he’d do a Tommy Cooper and die on the touch line.
After winning 13 titles with Manchester United, he did what he set out to do when he joined back in 1986, he knocked Liverpool ‘off their perch’ and then some. 38 trophies in his 26 years speaks volumes. Ferguson was appointed manager at Old Trafford on 6 November 1986. Arriving from a successful stint at Aberdeen, Fergie instantly stopped the drinking culture that was hurting the results on the field. In his first season he took them from 21st in the relegation zone to 11th. Fergie increased discipline and started to strengthen the team with the likes of Steve Bruce and Brian McClair. Mark Hughes was added in 1988 and in the 1989 season Neil Webb, Mike Phelan, Gary Pallister and Paul Ince were brought in. Bad form increased pressure on Fergie with widespread speculation that he would be sacked. The board backed him though and those are the only ones who matter. The FA Cup saved his bacon when they went on to win it. Finally in 1992-1993 and the purchase of Schmeichel, Parker, Andrei Kanchelskis and the legendary Eric Cantona from Leeds (for a paltry 1 million), Fergie won his first league title. This was the end of their 26-year wait and the rest was history under Fergie.
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Sir Alex made his mind up to retire half a season ago, “I decided to retire last Christmas, things changed when my wife Cathy’s sister died. She has lost her best friend, her sister.” Cathy was Catholic, Fergie was Protestant and she banned any talk of football at home throughout his career. Fergie regards his wife as “the key figure throughout my career…a bedrock of stability and encouragement.” It’s not the first time that Fergie thought about retiring, when in the 2001-2002 season he announced a similar desire. Team form plummeted and it all went pear shaped, and he called the announcement an “absolute disaster”. He also realised he didn’t fancy spending empty days in his house and that Cathy “would soon be fed up with me around the house”. He also admits that he wanted to “go out a winner.” In retirement he will probably spend a lot of time training horses and playing the piano, which he started back in 2008 but never had time. He has time a plenty now! He’s not going far though, and he will become a Manchester United director and ambassador and his influence will still be felt in the halls of Old Trafford. His last game will be his 1,500th game as United Manager.
His legacy is huge, but certain factors will now be gone, unless David Moyes, his successor, can carry on what Fergie started. His control of the press will go, where seasoned professional reporters were scared of Fergie denying them access (their bread and butter). The threat of being banned makes them tow the line, even the mighty BBC had to kowtow after a 7-year boycott. There will be an end to Fergie time. Statistical analysis by The Times and Opta Sports show that matches continued for 79 seconds longer when Manchester United were losing, than any other premiership club. Also take into account the referees will no longer be under such pressure. One current bald headed referee has given 20% of all his penalty decisions to Man Utd over a decade. Other referees were forced out of the game, if they crossed Fergie. Those three major factors will be noticed by the rest of the premier league, and I expect major spending by Chelsea (with Mourinho), Manchester City (with Pellegrini), even Arsenal, Liverpool (with Benitez hopefully) and Spurs. All will want to take advantage of a chink in the armour of Manchester United.
The principal core that Moyes will want to keep is that Fergie’s teams “never know when they are beaten”. Without Fergie time, that might be difficult, but if Moyes can bring his ideas to the club while making sure he keeps some of Fergie’s core ones, then there’s every chance that he can do well at his new job.
“
When we had bad times here, everyone stood by me and your job now is to stand by your new manager
”
Sir Alex Ferguson said in his farewell speech. The man to take over from Ferguson is David Moyes, who leaves Everton after 10 years. Moyes has signed a 6 year deal, though that means nothing if he can’t repeat Ferguson’s success. Interestingly, David Gill, the Chairman of Manchester United, spoke to the New York Stock Exchange, and said “That success cannot be guaranteed after the retirement of Alex Ferguson.” Whether David Moyes is the man for the job, is another matter...he has at least got previous experience at rebuilding squads from the bottom down.
Moyes will want to let core Fergie principles stay intact at the club. He will want silence from the players and any problems to be kept in-house. He will also want to remind that there is never any player who is bigger than the club. Fergie was famous for getting rid of players who didn’t tow the line; top players like Paul Ince (the self proclaimed ‘guvnor’) got rid of by the real Guvnor; David Beckham for pouting; Jaap Stam for telling the truth about Fergie illegally tapping him up from Ajax; and Roy Keane having the temerity to criticise other players in his team who were underachieving and not trying.
Born in 1963, he played as centre half for Celtic, Dunfermline and Preston North End. Deeply religious, Moyes was known as one of the ‘God squad’ in his playing days. When his playing career ended at Preston he worked his way up to manager by 1998 and took over at Everton in 2002. With limited funds to invest in a squad he nonetheless got Everton to qualify for the Champions League in 2005 and reached the FA Cup Final in 2009.
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One of the immediate problems for Moyes is that United are heavily reliant on aging players like Carrick, Evra and Ferdinand who are beginning to slow down. Add to that Fletcher being out injured with stomach problems, Nani, Ashley Young and Anderson under whelming, Chicarito wanting a move to play more, and the main figure of discontent – Wayne Rooney. After falling out with Fergie back in February and left out of many of the games since then, Rooney has stated that he wants to leave 2 weeks after finding out that Moyes was to take over. Moyes and Rooney have had previous problems, with Moyes suing Rooney and Rooney having to apologise. Moyes has recently gone on to say that Rooney is “one of the best players in the world” but that might be to do with his potential selling price than actually wanting to play him. United have a 40 million valuation of him and very few clubs can afford his £300,000-a-week salary. Paris St Germain perhaps, or with new manager Carlo Ancelloti at Real Madrid. Threatened with relegation when taking over, this continued into the 2003-2004 season when they ended up 17th, their lowest ever points value. Moyes soon started to turn their fortunes around, with the purchase of Tim Cahill and the very next season they qualified for the Champions League. Having qualified for Europe, their campaign however, proved disastrous and they were out of the competition by August in the preliminary rounds. In the next season they were battling relegation again when they were expected to push for Europe. But by the 2006-2007 season, with the additions of Cahill, Mikel Arteta, Andrew Johnson, Joleon Lescott and Tim Howard, the team went from strength to strength, they reached 6th that year. Continuing to strengthen in the 2007-2008 season with Yakubu, Pienaar, Jagielka and Baines they finished 5th. In 2009, Fellaini was bought for 15 million (and is expected to follow him to Manchester United). This ability to build a team is what attracted the eye of Ferguson, and by 2010, Fergie had said that Moyes would be perfect to take over from him when he retires.
Time will tell if Moyes can build on the success that Fergie has created, if the other top teams in the premiership spend money in the summer, then next season’s title race could be one of the most exciting in living memory!
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Boxing
Marbella’s
Matthew Macklin books his World Title Fight! MGM’s Matthew Macklin will get his next attempt at a World Title on the 29th June in Connecticut, USA. Matthew will challenge hard hitting WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. Matthew is on top form, since his stunning performance last September with his first-round knockout of Alcine, he is ready to face the formidable Golovkin, who has won all 26 professional fights and has an 88% KO rate. This fight promises to be one of the most exiting this year; “Golovkin hasn’t put a foot wrong yet as a pro,” Matthew admits “for the first time in his career, he’s going to be stepping into the ring against a big, strong, proper worldclass middleweight.” Matthew is currently training hard at MGM, everyone is getting behind him and this time he hopes to be bringing the title back to Marbella!
MGM – Avenida de Manolete 10, 29660 Nueva Andalucia, Marbella 952 817 219 www.mgm.com.es
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Golf
This year’s U.S Open Championship takes place on 13th-16th June at the Merion Golf Club. Merion Golf Club is a private golf club located in Haverford Township, Pennsylvania, 11 miles (18 km) west of Philadelphia. There are two courses: the East Course, and the West Course. The East Course is regarded as one of America’s greatest golf courses, and will host its fifth U.S. Open in 2013.
The Merion Golf Club
dates from 1896, when members of the Merion Cricket Club (founded in 1865) opened a the golf course. In 1910, the membership decided to build a new course and chose 32-year-old club member Hugh Wilson, a Scottish immigrant and fine player, to design it. The East Course opened in September 1912, and the original course was closed. The West Course, also designed by Wilson, opened in May 1914. In 1941 Merion Golf Club officially separated from the Merion Cricket Club. On the East Course, all pins are topped with wicker baskets instead of the usual flags. Apparently, when Hugh Wilson was in England studying the English golf courses, he happened upon local sheep herders and their flocks. The shepherds held staffs that they used for herding, and the staffs all had wicker baskets at the top. They kept their lunch in the basket so that no animals could get to it. Wilson decided to use the idea at Merion, though the exact origin 80
has never been fully verified. One effect is that the baskets are visible no matter which way the wind is blowing, and they do not give the golfer any indication of wind direction. They have been used since at least 1916, and are featured in the club’s logo. The wicker baskets will be used in the 2013 U.S. Open. Merion has played host to 18 U.S.G.A Championships including 6 Opens, the last of which, in 1981, was won by David Graham.
“
Merion was once described by Jack Nicklaus as
Acre for acre, it may be the best test of golf in the world. Well, come June 13th we will find out.
Whoever wins will follow in the footsteps of some golfing greats who have previously won at Merion. Bobby Jones in 1930 completed the famous grand slam when he won the US Amateur.
”
In 1950, Ben Hogan made his comeback 16 months after a near fatal car crash, and with extreme pain in his legs, on the 72nd hole, he fired a 1-Iron to a distant green. 2 putts later and he was into a third man playoff with Lloyd Mangrum and George Fazio. Hogan went on to win that playoff. The photo of Hogan’s 1-Iron shot has become one of the most famous in golf. Lee Trevino beat Jack Nicklaus in 1971 in an 18-hole playoff which was remembered more for the plastic snake produced by Trevino on the 1st Tee, than the 68 he shot to beat Jack. With 3 tournament wins this year, the latest being the Players Championship, Tiger Woods goes into the U.S Open as the overwhelming favourite. Rory McIlroy has shown only brief glimpses of his top form, but with his talent, who knows what’s coming. ‘Lefty’, Phil Mickelson started the year brightly but has been miss-firing in the last couple of months. Phil has been a runner up a record 5 times and desperately wants the U.S Open on his C.V.
For me, I am going for Tiger, with maybe Lee Westwood as an outsider. If he can find a putter to behave, Lee Westwood could definitely make a run!
t s n e m a n r u o June T
TPC Southwind
l F edex St. Jude Classic 3rd - 9th June
TPC Southwind, Memphis, Tn
Diamond Country Club
l Lyoness Open powered by Greenfinity 6th - 9th June Diamond Country Club, Atzenbrugg, Austria
l U s Open 10th - 16th June
Merion Golf Club
Merion Golf Club, Ardmore, Pa
l S aint-Omer Open presented by Neuflize 13th - 16th June Aa Saint Omer Golf Club, Lumbres, France
Aa Saint Omer Golf Club
lT ravelers Championship 17th - 23rd June
TPC River Highlands, Cromwell, Ct
l B mw International Open 20th - 23rd June
TPC River Highlands
Golf Club Munchen Eichenried, Munich, Germany
l A T&T National 24th - 30th June
Congressional Country Club, Bethesda, Md
Munchen Eichenried
lT he Irish Open 27th - 30th June
Carton House, Dublin, Ireland Congressional Country Club
Carton House 81
Tennis
Wimbledon 2013 At the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club between 24 June to 7 July 2013, Wimbledon 2013 takes place, and defending Champions Roger Federer and Serena Williams will try to hold on to their crowns.
Male contenders >> Novak Djokovic, Serbia - The favourite Ranked number 1 in the World for the last 2 years in a row. Djokovic started playing Tennis at the age of four and comes from a line of sportsmen; his father, uncle and aunt were pro skiers and his father also an excellent football player. Novak started his pro tennis career at 16. Novak prefers hard courts to grass and clay but he likes to think himself as an all rounder. Still young and a similar age to Murray, he will be Andy’s principle challenger in the next few years. 2012: Wins the Australian Open, SF at Wimbledon, Runner up to Andy Murray in the US Open Final.
Roger Federer, Switzerland Ranked number 2 in the World. Federer is brilliant on grass, so will always be a threat at Wimbledon. Roger is known for his style even in the power era of tennis. He is a wizard on grass but as he has won titles on all surfaces he is a natural. Federer is one of the all time greats of Tennis and may one day be regarded as THE best of all time. Winner of 16 Grand Slam titles. Sadly, time slowly encroaches on Federer and he is in the twilight of his career. Due to his fitness regime and skill, he still has a few years left in him though. 2012: Silver medal at London Olympics. 2010: 16th career Grand Slam crown at Australian Open. 2009: Reaches all four Grand Slam finals in same year, Wins French Open, Wins Wimbledon. 2008: Wins US Open. 2007: Wins Australian Open, Wins Wimbledon, Wins US Open.
2011: Wimbledon crown, US Open, Australian Open.
2006: Wins Australian Open, Wins Wimbledon, Wins US Open.
2010: Lost to Nadal in US Open Final.
2005: Wins Wimbledon, Wins US Open.
2008: Australian Open
2004: Wins Australian Open, Wins Wimbledon, Wins US Open.
Rafael Nadal, Spain
2003: Wins Wimbledon.
Currently ranked 5 in the world. From the Island of Majorca ‘Rafa’ plays left handed but writes with his right hand. Rafa has won everything in the game, but injuries to knee and wrist have hampered him in recent years after his sensational form in 2010 when winning all 4 major Grand Slam titles. 2012: Wins French Open. 2011: Wins French Open, Runner up at Wimbledon, Runner up at US Open. 2010: Wins Australian Open, Wins French Open, Wins Wimbledon, Wins US Open. 2009: Wins Australian Open. 2008: Wins French Open, Wins Wimbledon. 2007: Wins French Open. 2006: Wins French Open, Runner up at Wimbledon. 2005: Wins French Open. 82
Andy Murray Read about our British hopeful on page 85!
Female contenders >> Serena Williams, America - The favourite Serena has the best and most powerful serve in the game. One of the all time greats of Womens Tennis, winning 14 Grand Slam Titles. Learning Tennis on the streets with older sister Venus, she won her first Grand Slam at the age of 17 against Martina Hingis. In 2010, she cut her foot on a broken glass and complications arose where she suffered a hematoma and a pulmonary embolism. Despite missing much of 2011, she still managed to get to the final of the US Open. She has won more money than any other female athlete in any sport in history.
24 June - 7 July
Victoria Azarenka, Belarusia Listen to her shriek! Aggressive play from the baseline and capable of searing strokes, Victoria, prefers the hard court. Currently ranked 3 in the world, she is the highestranked Belarusian player in history. Nicknamed “Vika,” she has a fiery temper on court. 2012: Australian Open. 2011: Lost in the Wimbledon Semis.
Maria Sharapova, Russia A talented player, but as she’s beautiful, she’s often said to put modelling before tennis. Signing a record 8-year, $70 million deal with Nike in 2010, the most lucrative endorsement pact ever for a female athlete. She can play a bit too as you can see from her Grand Slam title record.
Singles Titles 2012: Wimbledon 2010: Australian Open, Wimbledon 2009: Australian Open, Wimbledon 2008: US Open 2007: Australian Open 2005: Australian Open
2011: Runner up at Wimbledon.
2003: Australian Open, Wimbledon
2008: Australian Open
2002: Roland Garros, Wimbledon, US Open,
2007: Runner up in Australian Open.
1999: US Open
2006: US Open
Doubles Titles
2004: Wimbledon, WTA Championships
2012: Wimbledon 2010: Australian Open, Roland Garros 2009: Australian Open, Wimbledon,US Open 2008: Wimbledon, Olympics 2003: Australian Open 2002: Wimbledon 2001: Australian Open 2000: Wimbledon, Olympics 1999: Roland Garros, US Open
Petra Kvitova, Czech Republic Petra can play on all-courts and has a powerful left serve and wonderful all round play especially round the net. Won Wimbledon at 21 years, One to keep an eye out for. 2011: Wimbledon. 2010: Semi’s at Wimbledon. 83
Tennis
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Andy Murray Andrew Barron “Andy” Murray, born in 1987, is Britain’s only hope of winning Wimbledon. He may be our only hope for a very long time. 2012 was a superb year for Murray where at the 2012 US Open, he became the first British man to win a Grand Slam singles tournament, since 1936. At the Olympics he won gold and became the first British champion in over 100 years. He is the only man in history to win the Olympic gold medal and the US Open title back-to-back. He was born with a bipartite patella, where the kneecap remains as two separate bones instead of fusing together in early childhood. This knee problem has hampered him throughout his career. Murray began as a professional in 2005 at the age of 18, and ranked as world number 407 but his rise was meteoric and by years end he was 64th. The next year he was in the top 20 and by 2008 he was number 4 in the world. In 2008 he reached his first Grand Slam Final where he lost to Roger Federer.
Murray reached the final once more where he met world number 1, Federer . He lost. He reached the semi’s at Wimbledon before losing to Nadal. In 2011, he got to the Australian Open final where he was defeated by Novak Djokovic and the semi’s at the French Open, Wimbeldon and the US Open. But in 2012, everything changed when Murray got a new coach in the form of ex champ, Ivan Lendl. The new coach slowly began to improve Murray game and so he got to the semi’s at the Australian Open and the quarters of the French Open.
By 2009 he reached the quarters of the French Open and won Queens (the pre tournament to Wimbledon) and thus was the first British winner since 1938. Up until September of 2009 he finally overtook Rafael Nadal and became world number 2. But at the US Open, he damaged his wrist and this of course affected his form.
Wimbledon though was the start of him going up a gear. He reached the final and became the first British player to do so since Bunny Austin in 1938. He lost to Federer but soon had revenge at the London Olympics where he beat Federer to win Olympic gold. Murray became the first British man since Josiah Ritchie in 1908 to win gold.
He continued to be the nearly man for the next few years. In 2010,
Winning gold, changed his mindset which showed in the following
US Open. He reached his second consecutive Grand Slam Final and went on to beat Novak Djokovic to become the first Brit to win a Grand Slam final since Fred Perry in 1936. He finished the year as World number 3. In 2013, he reached the Australian Open Final once more and this became Murray’s third consecutive Major final. Sadly he was defeated by Djokovic. Murray’s playing style is varied. He has a low error groundstroke and can turn defence into attack, by increasing the pace of his groundstrokes who have settled into a slow rally. His return is also excellent and has excellent reach and intelligence to react to his opponent. He is rarely aced because of this. He is best on fast hard court surfaces but has been developing on clay. Andy Murray is still only 26 and so with Roger Federer coming to the end of his illustrious career and Rafael Nadal constantly injured, his main rival will be Novak Djokovic. I have a feeling that the two will be playing each other a lot in the next few years and this will create one of the great rivalries in world sport. Murray has shown that he can beat the best and now with the help of Lendl, he can dominate the sport for years to come.
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