At last the sun came out for Andy Murray at Wimbledon on Sunday, a nervous smile to acknowledge
Authentic Travis Shaw Womens Jersey the pending arrival of a second child and an expression of confidence that his sore hip should not prevent him defending his title at full tilt. The breaking news that he and his wife, Kim, will be celebrating the birth of a brother or sister for 17-month-old Sophia in the autumn lifted what had been a considerable weight from the champion’s shoulders although, despite his protestations to the contrary, there was lingering evidence in practice on Sunday morning that his movement is not as sharp as he would like. Wimbledon men’s form guide: the players to watch in SW19 Read more Murray took a tumble reaching for a backhand during a hit with Grigor Dimitrov and his hands went to his knees more than once as he stretched his body as near to the limit as he dared just a day before he opens the tournament on Centre Court against the unpredictable young Russian Alexander Bublik. Asked first about the more important development in his week, Murray denied the prospect of being a father for the second time would bring added stress to his fortnight. “No, I wouldn’t have thought so,” he said. “We’re both obviously very happy and looking forward to it.” Pressed again about whether or not he could devote full focus to his tennis, he replied: “Well, I mean, I’ve had family the whole time I’ve been playing tennis, so yeah, I’ll be fine dealing with that. It’s certainly
Craig Hartsburg Womens Jersey not a distraction in the slightest.” Reluctant to go into detail about his wife’s pregnancy (which had become obvious, at least, to the phalanx of photographers snapping her at Roland Garros a month ago), he said: “She’ll be coming to Wimbledon, yeah. And we found out a while ago. But I’m not interested in discussing the dates of that in here.” Of more immediate concern is his fitness. The world No1 has struggled all week to deflect concern about a sore hip that, it transpires, has a longer history than most observers were aware. After cancelling two exhibition matches and three days of training last week, he hit with more vigour against David Ferrer and the British players Alex Ward and Aidan McHugh on Saturday – and even jogged at decent pace later on past the media room – but looked to be creaking a little on Sunday morningMurray served well and struck the ball cleanly, especially on the forehand side, but his challenge seems to be uncertainty on the backhand, his naturally strong wing. If he is vulnerable there and the rest of the field become alive to the prospect of testing any perceived weakness, he could struggle. He insisted: “The last few days have been very good. Practice each day has got a little bit better. It’s been slightly stop-start preparations. But each day I’ve felt better. A little bit like at the French Open, where maybe I didn’t come in as well prepared [but reached the semi-finals], I still found a way with each match to feel a bit better, and built
http://www.officialsstlouisblues.com/Adidas-David-Perron-Jersey confidence each day. I’m hoping that’s the case hereWard is No855 in the world, 854 places adrift of Andy Murray, with whom he hit again on Saturday. He has earned ?130,000 in his career, just ?6,600 of it this year, and was ?12,000 in the red before he made the Wimbledon main draw last year. Life for Ward, like many of his contemporaries, is what most matches are for Murray: tough. When he looked up the draw before the final allocation, he was hoping for a soft landing. “I saw that Andy had [a qualifier],” he said, “and straight away I didn’t want that. I did not want to play Andy. That was the toughest. It’s still gonna be a tough match [against Edmund] but I’ll give it my all.” Playing a compatriot sometimes can be difficult – although it is not such a regular occurrence for British players for cruelly obvious reasons – and Ward said: “We went on a few trips when I was based at the LTA with him, and we trained together quite a bit there. We played in America, in Florida in the Futures. He won that tournament. That was when he started to move up to Challenger level. We get on well.” Advertisement Ward has been based in Barcelona, where he indulges himself on his favourite surface, clay. Had he missed out on Wimbledon, he would have been playing in a Futures tournament in Getxo, northern Spain. How many would have been watching that one? “Not many. I’ve played that tournament before. For Futures it’s an OK turnout. I actually won it once. Maybe 50 max. It can be dispiriting, yes, but I love playing. “Last year was
Kevin King Womens Jersey massive because I got a wildcard into the Wimbledon main draw. Before that I was in quite a bit of debt – about ?12,000. That cleared that off and helped me to invest in my tennis. But then I got injured for six months
