From the Telegraph:

http://www.sport.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml;jsessionid=GL5QW2UE5V11FQFIQMGSFGGAVCBQWIV0?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/sport/2006/02/24/stphil24.xml

By the age of 18, Boris Becker had won two Wimbledon titles and Mozart had composed some of his greatest masterpieces, so I suppose we must not allow ourselves to become too carried away by Andy Murray's victory in the San Jose Open.

However, let us consider exactly what he achieved. In the semi-finals he defeated Andy Roddick who has won 20 singles titles, including the US Open in 2003 when he ended the year as world No 1, and who has been runner-up to Roger Federer at the last two Wimbledon championships; in the final, Murray then beat Lleyton Hewitt, winner of 24 career titles, US Open champion in 2001 and Wimbledon champion in 2002, two seasons in which he preceded Roddick as world No 1.

It is hard not to be impressed. But there are those who have not been quite so impressed by master Murray's verbal outbursts and behaviour. Following his 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 defeat against Argentinian Juan Ignacio Chela in the first round of the Australian Open in January, Murray rounded on Fleet Street for putting him under too much pressure. "If you guys expect me to play well in every single tournament, it's not going to happen. It's difficult for me to go out there and perform to my best when I'm expected to win every match."

Murray subsequently became the subject of a BBC Radio Five Live phone-in, during which one listener described him as "your typical whingeing Scot" amid a welter of calls suggesting he should "behave more like Tim Henman". "And why's that?", was my immediate reaction at the time. Murray has enormous regard (affection even) for Henman as a player and a person, but the two are very different breeds.

Throughout his career, the Englishman has sought to keep his emotions and his thoughts to himself, whereas the young Scot is a creature of passions. On court he is altogether more fiery than Henman and, just like most teenagers when asked for opinion, can usually be guaranteed to tell it like it is.

Such outspokenness landed him in trouble Down Under earlier this year when he generated boos from the crowd at the Auckland Open where, after losing to Croatian Mario Ancic, he breezily informed his on-court interviewer that in the first set they had "played like women". "I make one small comment which was a joke and was taken out of context," Murray bemoaned. "I have to watch every word I say."

Even Murray's heroics in San Jose were not without controversy, his quarter-final victory over Sweden's Robin Soderling being described as a "snarling, spitting, swearing performance" by The Sunday Express. "You don't want to be unpopular on the tour, but when you are on the court you have to do what you have to do to win," explained Murray who, again according to The Sunday Express, "threw his racket four times and was given a code violation when he appeared to swear at chair umpire Norm Chryst after losing the first set".

"Tut, tut, tut," I can hear the fevered sufferers of Henmania sneer. "Our Tim would never have done such a thing." Well, allow me to remind you that, in 1995, our Timmy became the first player to be disqualified at Wimbledon after striking a ball-girl (albeit accidentally) when whacking a ball in anger.

"Then, how about Boris Becker?" you holler. "He's the complete gentleman." Ah, he may be now, but that wasn't always the case. Even John McEnroe was moved to call for Becker's disqualification from Wimbledon in 1994 after the three-times champion used a "lavatory break" to illegally receive treatment for cramp during a third-round match against Argentinian Javier Frana.

"I didn't know it was against the rules," claimed Becker, who was then playing in his 11th Wimbledon. Becker was fined $1,000, leaving Frana, one of the tour's most gentlemanly practitioners, to comment wryly: "What would have happened if I'd done that? It's no big thing to disqualify me as opposed to those guys."

In the fourth round that same year Ukrainian Andrei Medvedev, infuriated by the Becker's stalling tactics (a piece of gamesmanship for which he was notorious) during a supercharged five-set match he was to lose 6-7, 7-5, 7-6, 6-7, 7-5, told his conqueror as they shook hands: "If you're good enough, then win without cheating."

And Becker's response to the outrage he inspired? "There is nothing I wouldn't do on court in order to win."

"Andre Agassi, then. Everyone loves Andre." What selective memories you have. When Agassi first appeared before us as a 16-year-old in 1986, it is fair to say precious few liked the cut of his mullet-haired, brash and bumptious jib. For a born-again Christian, Agassi could always display a surprising mastery of colloquial Anglo-Saxon; his most infamous exhibition of skulduggery came at the 1990 US Open with a vile outburst directed against Australian umpire Wayne McKewan at Flushing Meadows.

In the middle of a venomous tirade over a disputed line-call, Agassi received a warning for an audible obscenity after hurling his favourite four-letter word at McKewan. Growing ever more vitriolic, he ended his diatribe with the words "you sonofabitch". As a full stop, Agassi then spat in the direction of the umpire. As the spittle settled on his shoes and trousers, McKewan called tournament supervisor Ken Farrar to the courtside and explained what had occurred.

Trying to wriggle free from a moment of madness, Agassi pleaded innocence. "I spat on you? No, No, do you think I'd really do that? It was an accident. Really. Here, have my towel," he begged, frantically trying to wipe the offending gob of spit from McKewan's toecap. After slow-motion television replays clearly proved that he had spat, Agassi was fined $3,000 ($500 for swearing and $2,500 for spitting).

But for filthy language, obscene gestures, temper tantrums, sexual innuendo, cruel mockery and blatant gamesmanship, Jimmy Connors was always hard to beat. Take his manic outburst at the 1991 US Open, where he railed against umpire David Littlefield following a disputed line call during his fourth-round match with Aaron Krickstein: "Kiss me before you **** with me, you sonofabitch. Get out of the chair, you're a bum, get your ass down here. Don't give me that crap, you're an abortion."

Krickstein, who had held a 5-2 lead in the fifth set, surrendered in a climactic tie-break, his spirit broken as Connors whipped the New York crowd into a frenzy. Mary Carillo, a former player and a television tennis analyst who had seen the worst of John McEnroe and Ilie Nastase, was moved to say: "Jimmy was as gross as you can get, but I've heard him say it all before."

And so, when The Sunday Express witters on about "ugly outbursts...tantrums...acting the brat", I think someone, somewhere has lost all sense of perspective. Andy Murray is 18, he's temperamental, he's a winner. Leave the kid alone.