Murray went to the US Junior Open at Flushing Meadow more in hope than expectation with a dodgy knee that had kept him off the courts for months and just a couple of promising wins on the satellite ‘Futures’ circuit. Then the 17-year-old Scot catapulted himself into the exultant company of Wimbledon winners Pat Cash, Stefan Edberg and Andy Roddick by winning the coveted US Junior Open title.

A Davis Cup debut, replacing Henman and alongside Rusedski against Israel was to follow at the end of a season that had brought Andy Murray into the public’s consciousness, before relative obscurity prevailed once more, back at Barcelona’s Casal-Sanchez Tennis Academy, preparation for his push for his first season as a senior and some big scalps, big headlines, big money.

Born the youngest of two brothers on 15th May 1987, Andy Murray had tennis in his DNA; mother Judy Erskine had been Scotland’s ladies champion and older brother Jamie was making his way in the game.

‘I picked up a tennis racquet at three when my mum took me to the local courts at Dunblane, but I’m not sure if I took to it straight away, and my mum said I wasn’t very good,’ says the soft-spoken Scot. ‘I wasn’t forced into playing tennis, I was given the choice and when I was eight or nine, I wasn’t really enjoying it and wanted to stop playing. I took a break for a couple of months but then I wanted to start playing again and I started taking tennis more seriously.’

Murray quit his other passion, football – rumour has it that he had been spotted by Rangers – when he was 12, and the rest, as they say is history. He had a fistful of Scottish and British junior age-group titles to his name, but like most promising Scottish sports starlets, Murray

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