Andy Murray CELEBRATES with Tennis Art
World no. 4 Andy Murray; Britain’s favourite was the fourth to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals 2010. The event is scheduled to be held at the award winning, O2 arena in London this November. Andy Murray was the fourth
player to qualify for this event after having defeated World no. 2 Roger Federer in the Shanghai Masters earlier this year. His qualification for the event follows that of Rafael Nadal from Spain, Roger Federer from Switzerland and Novak Djokovic from Serbia.
The English favourite celebrates his qualification by volunteering for “tennis art”. The player created a unique portrait of himself that is to be auctioned off for charity later this year. The art is created by serving tennis
balls dipped in paint onto a silhouette of the player. This one of a kind portrait is going to be hung in the O2 arena alongside that of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic.
Having had a not-so-good year, he has much reason to celebrate his qualification into the ATP World Tour Finals; a spot which was at stake till the Shanghai Masters earlier this year. His performance in the Grand Slams was mediocre;
at best having reached the final of the Australian Open only. He lost the match to Roger Federer with a match score of 6-3, 6-4, 7-6, after which he said that his mind was not on tennis. He was out of the running for the U.S. Open when he lost his match to
Stanislas Wawrinka from Switzerland in the 3rd round. The Brit favourite also lost his chance at the French Open when he lost to Czech Tomas Berdych in the 4th round. His bad luck continued for the year when he lost the Wimbledon semi
final to Rafael Nadal by 6-4, 7-6, 6-4.
Murray’s first victory of the year since Nov 2009 came when he defended his title at the Canadian Masters against Roger Federer and won the game with a match score of 7-5, 7-5. Murray’s second Masters Title of 2010 came earlier
this year when he again defeated Roger Federer in the Shanghai Masters. The match score was 6-3, 6-2.
Halfway through the year, in July, Murray split up with his coach Miles Maclagan. The split up happened when rumours surfaced in the press that Murray was looking to replace Maclagan with American super star Andre Agassi’s former
coach Darren Cahill. Though Murray denied this, however he replaced Maclagan with Alex Corretja before he went on to compete in the 2010 Farmers Classic.
Having won only two Master titles this year and with his mediocre performance in the Grand Slams, Murray has much to celebrate for by qualifying for the World Tour Finals and securing his position in the World Rankings which was
at stake earlier in the year.