From Neil Harman, The Times !

The Times
February 27, 2006

Hot Murray prepares to try his luck in Las VegasBy Neil Harman

Our correspondent reports as the young Scot leads by example for Britain's hopefuls








FROM Dunblane High Street to the Las Vegas Strip is one mighty change of scene — and highway — and Andy Murray is becoming well used to life in the fast lane. Making sure that the journey does not get too lonesome for the Scottish teenager is the immediate concern occupying those charged with steering British tennis towards a credible state of roadworthiness.

Murray’s criss-crossing of the United States takes him to new ground for the professional tour and a stop in Las Vegas at the Tennis Channel Open, an event that used to be staged in Scottsdale, Arizona, but was bought by the fledgeling cable TV company and shipped to a venue with star quality.

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Quite why Andre Agassi — arguably the most prominent sporting inhabitant of the city — should decide that his second tournament of what is likely to be his valedictory year will be in Dubai, may become clearer as the week progresses.

Still, Murray is there — along with the likes of Lleyton Hewitt and James Blake — and he arrives just as his name is being painted in the lights that have been the preserve in the past decade of Tim Henman with the occasional flashy moment from Greg Rusedski. That, and Roger Draper’s installation as the chief executive of the LTA, indicates a rapid and timely shifting of gears.

Stuart Smith, the new president of the LTA, remembers a lively debate at a Davis Cup tie in Australia three years ago (after he had just become deputy president), when no one in the party could see a single decent British player on the horizon. Now we have Murray. It may have been with this in mind that, on BBC Radio’s Sportsweek programme yesterday, Smith said he wanted five players (men, women or a combination) inside the world ’s top 100 by 2008. Whether he told Draper that at his interview is not clear.

Unless Smith, who describes it as “a tough target”, sees something that most of us have not, it is a line that may not be breached in the time allotted, especially when you think that Henman and Rusedski will have retired by then. Henman, the most successful Briton of the past 70 years, railed once more yesterday against a succession of those he describes as “wasters ” — talented players who for one reason or another have failed to make the inroads in the game that their ability suggested they could.

As of last night, Alex Bogdanovic was the British No 4 at around No 140 and Arvind Parmar has crept back into the top 200. Neither are in the first flush of youth. Perhaps Jamie Baker, Murray’s fellow-Scot, is best equipped to move forward at the pace required. He was beaten in the final of a tough satellite event in Australia last night but is heading towards a place inside 300. There is only one woman, Anne Keothavong at No 163, anywhere near the top 200 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

There is a greater number of players with a ranking, especially on the men’s side, but most are at the base of the pyramid, a far cry from where Murray, who today meets Tommy Robredo, the world No 14 from Spain, finds himself.

The incentive for the others could hardly be more alluring, given that the clamour to attach his name to their sporting portfolio is beginning to interest a growing number of high-class companies.

“Being the No 1 in Britain is nice but it is not a ‘must have’,” Patricio Apey, Murray’s new agent, said. “It may excite people in Britain, but we are looking longer term at a much bigger picture and making sure we get the right brand alignment for Andy.”

Murray is thinking ahead and so, too, is Henman, who today plays Feliciano Lopez, of Spain, in the first round in Dubai, where he has accepted a wild card. “I’ve got to be enjoying my tennis again and for that to happen my back has to hold up and I’ve got to get back into the top 20,” Henman, who will be about No 45 this morning, said yesterday.

“I’m not one of those guys happy to languish at the end of my career in the thirties and forties. It’s not going to be easy.”