In This Award Season Andy Murray Is Always There

Written by: Staff on 5th December 2012

In This Award Season Andy Murray Is Always There

epa03423013 Andy Murray of Britain returns the ball to Milos Raonic of Canada during their semi final match in the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships tournament in Tokyo, Japan, 06 October 2012. Raonic later won the match and advanced to then final. EPA/TOMOYUKI KAYA |

The year-ending awards sporting awards season is in full swing and as expected US Open champion and Olympic gold medalist Andy Murray is in the forefront for British honours.

The 25 year-old Scot has been named both the 2012 recipient of the Lawn Tennis Writers Association Award Winner for Services to British Tennis, BBC Scotland Sport Nation Sportsperson of the Year.

He has also been named in a short list of 12 for Britain’s premier sporting award, BBC Television’s Sports Personality of the Year Award alongside names like Britain’s first ever Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins, Sir Chris Hoy who is the most successful British Olympian of all time in terms of gold medals, world no.1 golfer Rory McIlroy and double 5,000 and 10,000 metres gold medalist Mo Farah.

In America Murray has also been nominated to win the Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year and Most Inspiring Performance of 2012.

This week Murray was not on hand to collect either the Sport Nation or the 61 year-old LTWA award, with previous winners including Virginia Wade, and non-Brits such Billie Jean King, Jean Borotra and Philippe Chatrier. He is currently in Miami working on his fitness with physical trainer Jez Green before linking up with coach Ivan Lendl earlier next week to step up preparations for the 2013 season and his attempt to add more Grand Slam titles to his list of achievements.

But he admits that success is only part of the breakthrough he has made this year. ““I’m quite an emotional person when I’m fighting in matches, but when the cameras are on, I haven’t been particularly open, especially in the last few years,” he said, speaking to ESPN Magazine in his first big American interview since winning the US Open title. “So this year people saw a different side of me.

“I got used to the media’s expectations of me after a while. The grand-slam tag is something that our country had been waiting on for so long, and maybe winning a grand-slam event was something I wanted too much.

“I became so obsessed with it that I wasn’t focusing on all my other matches, and that isn’t particularly healthy.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: Andy Murray, British tennis news, Lawn Tennis Writers Association Award Winner, Murray, Tennis News