Despite inventing the sport of Tennis, the UK never had much success on the Wimbledon court, with no male winners since 1936 and no British winners at all since the 1970s.
Tim Henman tried. In fact, he tried very hard, but he could never quite push himself over the finish line. Then Andy Murray came along.
To be honest, nobody had that much belief in him, but now he is regarded as one of the best British tennis players in history.
Andy Murray Tennis Shoes
Andy Murray has gone through a couple of different tennis shoe manufacturers over the years. While the tennis shoes that he wears have been custom-made for his feet, both manufacturers have offered replicas.
Even if you do not purchase one of the Andy Murray shoes, you can be sure that both of these manufacturers are decent. After all, they produce shoes for some of the best players in the world. You know that they are dependable.
Andy Murray originally wore Adidas tennis shoes during the early part of his career. However, from 2014 until his retirement in 2019, he wore Under Armour shoes. In fact, he is one of only a few tennis players to wear these shoes on the court!
His ideal tennis shoes seem to be designed for quicker play on grass surfaces, particularly due to his playing style.
Since he spends so much time on the backline, he needs to be able to react quickly. His shoes need to provide him with a healthy dose of speed and grip that will allow him to hit a little bit closer to the net if required.
Other Andy Murray Tennis Equipment
In the later years of his game, Andy Murray mostly wore Under Armour gear, although he also wore a few bits and pieces from Castore (a sportswear manufacturer). His racquets have always been Head.
Playing Style
Andy was capable of playing the game on all surfaces. Unlike many of the other players on the pro circuit, his style of play was a bit more defensive. If you watch an Andy Murray tennis game, it is likely that you will see that he spends most of his time kicking around on the backline, which demonstrates his defensive style of play. However, he boasted incredibly quick reactions and he could switch to offensive play if need be. This meant that watching him was quite unpredictable. Playing him likely would have been a whole lot worse!
A Brief Career History
Like most top pro players, Andy Murray has so many wins under his belt that it would be nigh on impossible for us to mention them all here. We shall look at a few highlights, though.
His professional playing career began in 2005, at which time he was ranked 400th in the world [1]. He quickly rose through the ranks and in 2005 we got a small sample of just how important the lad was likely to be to British sports. Although he did not win, he became the youngest ever British player to take part in the Davis Cup.
In 2006, he became the number 1 player in the UK (he was around 40th in the world at this time). This was incredibly important. For a good long while, Tim Henman had been the number 1 player in the UK. The country essentially pinned their hopes on Tim for Wimbledon every year. Oh, and no, he never won Wimbledon, although he did come close. At this point, Andy Murray became the main hope for the country. This is when those sponsorship deals really started to roll in.
In 2007, Andy hit the top 10 players in the world. However, it was this year that showed that he could be quite an injury-prone player. He was left out of action for a few weeks due to snapped tendons. Ever since, he has suffered from regular injuries. But this has never stopped him from being one of the number 1 players in the world.
Career Highlight
Despite Andy showing a lot of promise as a player, he never really made that much of a splash on the major tournaments until 2012. He had a couple of semi-finals here and the odd final there. It wasn’t until 2012 that he won something (although he had previously won some Masters), and here he won the US Open.
Of course, the US Open wasn’t good enough for Andy; he wanted Wimbledon. He wanted to be the first male British player in over 80 years to win this tournament. Luckily for him, he picked it up the following year. This effectively cemented him as one of the greatest British sportsmen of all time- seriously [2]. The country had not rejoiced that much since England won the 1966 World Cup. It was that important.
To be honest, a lot of Andy Murray’s fame has come from winning Wimbledon. Sure, this guy has hit World Number 1 numerous times, but he hasn’t had the massive success that some of the other pros have seen; he only has 3 Grand Slams to his name, after all. However, in the UK, he is well-known as one of the greatest British players ever. Even Tim Henman agrees with that, and that really says something.
Retirement
Sadly, Andy Murray is unlikely to ever return to the professional scene. He announced his retirement in 2019 due to injury. His name will live on in British tennis history, in world tennis history, even. He really is one of the best tennis players to ever grace the court.
Of course, even though Andy Murray has retired from the sport, you can still pick up his shoes. It is likely that he will be handing out Under Armour endorsements for the foreseeable, and it is likely that he will work with them to develop new product lines.
References
- https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andy-murray/mc10/overview
- https://www.andymurray.com/
