Free Hitting Back by Andy Murray Page A

so
long that Leon, though not quite a father-figure, had obviously
been telling me off since I was a child. I respected him. He was
a good friend and very caring, but maybe I was at the stage
where I was starting to become a bit more independent which
led to arguments.
    Leon went home and Mum came to Italy instead. Somehow
I managed to win the tournament, despite being 2–5 in the final
set of one match and 3–5 down in the next. I was pleased. It
gave me confidence, and I needed that badly. After the longest
and most miserable lay-off of my life, I was setting off for the
US Open Juniors – with no coach.
    New York is unbelievable. I enjoy it. I love it. The noise, the
pace, the energy, the size of it. I love the people. New Yorkers
are perceived as arrogant and loud, but I think they're just
being friendly. We were staying at the Grand Hyatt Hotel right
above Central Station and the minute I walked in the lobby I
was amazed by how enormous it was. There was a shop where
you could get bagels and the people at reception were so great.
Sometimes I had to get up and go out at 5am, and everyone in
the hotel seemed upbeat even at that time in the morning. If
you get up at 5am in Britain and go into a garage or something,
everyone's miserable, but they seem happy to see you over
there. It's been my favourite tournament ever since.
    My room was huge. It had a massive bed, loads of pillows,
a big TV with thirty channels. This was paradise. At
Wimbledon, they put the juniors up in little rooms with one
bed and one desk, miles away from the courts. There was
absolutely no comparison. The US Open made the juniors feel
they were part of the main tournament and I loved that most
of all.
    When I went to Flushing Meadows where the tournament is
played, about a half-hour bus ride from the city, I just thought:
'Wow.' It was a completely different atmosphere to anything
I'd ever experienced. There is no way that Wimbledon would
let juniors mix with the stars, but in New York we were
allowed in the main lounge area. Everywhere I looked there
seemed to be one of the best players in the world. I met
Guillermo Coria who was one of my favourite players at the
time. I saw the Ryder Cup golfer Sergio Garcia on the putting
machine. The fact they even have a putting machine in the
lounge is fantastic. I beat Tim Henman on that, much to his
annoyance, because he is a pretty low handicap golfer.
    I owed a lot to Tim that week. He was great to me. He was
on a run to the semi-finals in the main draw and so we spent
quite a bit of time together. He didn't have to. I was just a
Scottish kid in the juniors, but he found time to teach me
backgammon – which I have repaid many times by beating him
whenever we happen to meet. He tells it differently though!
    The first match I ever watched there was a night match, Kim
Clijsters against Justine Henin. The place was completely
packed and with an atmosphere more like a football match
with the noise, the lights and the tension. It didn't matter that
I was so high in the stadium I could barely see the ball. It
wasn't the sight that affected me. It was the feeling it gave me.
I realised I wanted to win here one day more than any other
tournament in the world.
    I had no idea the dream would come true, at the junior level,
that very week. I won my first three matches, two of them
indoors because of rain, for the loss of only seven games. That
felt good. Seeded three, I was living up to the numbers.
    It didn't happen for everyone. Gael Monfils was vying to
become the first boy to win the junior grand slam since Stefan
Edberg in 1983. He had won at Wimbledon after beating me in
the Roehampton final, but then suffered an injury. In New York
he was on his way back, but it was going to be tough. It was big
news when he lost in the third round to a Serbian called Viktor
Troicki. It was even bigger news – on the junior tour anyway –
when he was seen smashing his rackets to pieces in frustration
afterwards. For the rest