According to Flo Clifford of The Independent on Monday, Centre Court at the Queen’s Club Tennis Tournament (now called the HSBC Championship) has been renamed to Andy Murray Arena. The new arena is in honour of Great Britain’s top tennis player over the last two decades, and maybe even the last half a century.
Murray is a three-time grand slam champion (2013 and 2016 Wimbledon, and 2012 United States Open). He also won the gold medal in men’s tennis at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, and was ranked first in the world for 41 consecutive weeks from November 7, 2016 to August 20, 2017.
At the ATP level, Murray won five Queen’s Club championships of his 46 career ATP titles. It was the most number of times he won a single tournament. Murray’s Queen’s Club championship titles came in 2009 (beat American James Blake in the final, 7-5, 6-4), in 2011 (beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France in the final, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4), in 2013 (beat Marin Cilic of Croatia in the final, 5-7, 7-5, 6-3), in 2015 (beat Kevin Anderson of South Africa in the final, 6-3, 6-4), and in 2016 (beat Milos Raonic of Canada in the final, 6-7, 6-4, 6-3).
It is also interesting that the HSBC Championship is including women’s singles for the first time since 1973. This is noteworthy because Murray has been a strong advocate for women’s tennis throughout his career. The women’s singles champion on Sunday was Tatjana Maria of Germany, the 2022 Wimbledon semifinalist. Maria beat the eighth seed, and 2019 French Open semifinalist, Amanda Anisimova of the United States, 6-3, 6-4 in the final.
Since retiring a year ago, Murray coached Novak Djokovic for a brief time. Since parting ways with the 24-time grand slam champion, Murray has accepted a role as ambassador for Walker’s Shortbread according to tennis.com.
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