Murry Now Britain’s Number One
Andy Murry has been confirmed as the new British number one in the latest world rankings.
The 18-year-old Scot replaces long-standing British number one Tim Henman, who slips to third behind Murry and Greg Rusedski.
Murry moves up to 42nd in the world after reaching the quarter-finals in Memphis last week and winning the San Jose title two weeks ago.
Ruseddski remains 43rd, while Henman has fallen nine places to 49th.
Murry’s move to the top of the domestic rankings ends Henman’s seven year reign as Britain’s top player, but the Scot has played down the achievement.
“It’s not really that big a deal to be honest,” said Murry.
“Obviously you’d rather be British number one than British number 20, but I’d much rather have a higher world ranking than British because you don’t play any tournaments that are just British players.”
“You’re competing against the whole world and that’s where you get your credit from the players from.”
“If you’re number one in your country it’s nice but it doesn’t mean anything to the other players, whereas if you’re in the top 10 in the world that’s pretty special.”
Henman has said: “I think it’s great that Andy has been able to do so well as he has in such a short time, and it’s great for British tennis to have three players in the top 50 in the world.”
“Hopefully that will help inspire others to train just that little bit harder and believe that they can do it.”
Murry continues his season this week with an opening match against Tommy Robredo in Las Vegas, where top seed Andy Roddick has withdrawn because of ” weariness ” .
Henman and Rusedski are in action in Dubai alongside Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, andre Agassi and a returning Marat Saffin.
