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- published: 19 Mar 2010
- views: 2595911
- author: BBC
BBC Sport logo |
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Type | Department of the BBC |
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Industry | Media |
Headquarters | MediaCityUK, Salford, United Kingdom |
Area served | Specific services for United Kingdom and rest of world |
Key people | Barbara Slater (Director} |
Services | Television broadcasts Radio broadcasts Online presence |
Owner(s) | BBC |
Website | www.bbc.co.uk/sport |
BBC Sport is the division of the BBC providing sports coverage for BBC Television, Radio and Online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flagship analysis programmes such as Match of the Day, Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Today at Wimbledon and previously Grandstand. Results, analysis and coverage is also added to the BBC Sport Website[1] and through the BBC Red Button interactive television service.
Due to the public status of the BBC, advertising is forbidden and as a result, sports matches covered by BBC Sport are not allowed to be sponsored, although the present commercialisation of sport makes this almost impossible in practice. In the face of increased competition from its rival broadcasters the BBC has softened its stance and is now contractually obliged to refer to certain competitions by their sponsored name under the terms of broadcasting rights deals.
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The BBC has broadcast sport for several decades under individual programme names and coverage titles. Grandstand was one of the more notable Sport programmes, broadcasting sport since the programmes launch in 1958. The BBC first began to brand sport coverage as 'BBC Sport' in 1988 for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, by introducing the programme with a short animation of a globe circumnavigated by four coloured rings.[2] This practice continued throughout the next two decades. Upon the launch of the BBC News website in 1997, sport was included in the BBC's online presence for the first time.
In 2000 BBC Sport became a separate department of the BBC based at BBC Television Centre in London. As a result, the BBC Sport website was launched, although close ties were retained between the editors of the BBC Sport and BBC News websites. The website contained the details of several sports covered by the BBC, including key sports and other smaller specialist sports.
In 2006, the department gained Mihir Bose in the newly created Sports Editor position to improve the sports coverage. BBC Sport also began to experiment with High-definition television, namely broadcasting the 2006 Football World Cup on BBC HD, as part of larger experiments within the BBC.[3] Following the official launch of the BBC HD channel, BBC Sport expanded their HD coverage of sport, with Director of Sport Roger Mosey announcing in January 2009 that the BBC's aim "is for all our sport production to be in HD by 2012 at the latest".[4]
In June 2008, an interactive service was launched by BBC Sport on the BBC Red Button service. Available on all major television platforms, the service relayed both sports results and other sport video feeds currently not allocated broadcast time. The best example of this is the BBC's coverage of Wimbledon, where matches on other courts are only broadcast as part of highlights or in full on the BBC Sports website and BBC Red Button.
In 2009, Mihir Bose and Roger Mosey both left to be replaced with David Bond as Sports Editor in December and with Barbara Slater becoming the new Director of Sport in April 2009.
In May 2007, the BBC Trust approved plans for several BBC departments, including BBC Sport, to be moved to a new development in Salford.[5] The new development at MediaCityUK marks a major decentralisation of BBC departments and a key investment in the north of England. The department moved in to Quay House, MediaCityUK gradually in late 2011 and early 2012 with the first Sports bulletins being broadcast from the new BBC Sport Centre on 5 March 2012.[6]
One of the BBC Sport's most prized pieces of sport is the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. The BBC has televised Wimbledon since 1937 and today produces over 900 hours of footage for display in 159 different countries.[7] BBC One and BBC Two show coverage from 12 noon until 9pm each day. As well as this digital viewers have the option to view uninterrupted coverage of up to five alternative games on BBC Red Button. BBC signed a contract in 2011 to provide exclusive Wimbledon coverage until 2017 to keep the longest sporting contract in the world.
Coverage is presented by Sue Barker, while the Wimbledon highlights, titled Today at Wimbledon are fronted by John Inverdale. Commentators and analysts include Barry Davies, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Jimmy Connors, John Lloyd, Martina Navratilova, Virginia Wade, Sam Smith, Tracy Austin, Greg Rusedski, Tim Henman, Andrew Castle, Lindsay Davenport, Chris Bradnam, David Mercer, Mark Petchey, Simon Reed, Matt Chilton, Mark Cox, Liz Smylie, Louise Pleming, Andrew Cotter and Ronald McIntosh.
Furthermore, the BBC shows live coverage of the Australian Open, with the majority of coverage on BBC Red Button and important games (such as a match involving Andy Murray), including both finals shown on BBC One or BBC Two. However, coverage was scaled back in 2012 with coverage only beginning at the semi-final stage. The BBC also provides coverage of Queen's Club Championships and the ATP World Tour Finals whilst it is being held in London. The main commentators for the Australian Open is Sam Smith, John Lloyd and Andrew Cotter from 2011 before it was Chris Bailey instead of Cotter. Andrew Castle, Tim Henman, Greg Rudetski and Andrew Cotter usually provide commentary for other tournaments outside Wimbledon.
For many years the BBC broadcast the French Open but this ended in 2011 as ITV picked up the rights from 2012 onwards. They also used to show Davis Cup Live but since 2009 they haven't covered this because of Britains poor performances in the tournament. British Eurosport now generally shows these matches.
The BBC hold joint rights to show the FIFA World Cup until 2014 with ITV. A near equal split of group stage and knockout stage games are shown, including a semi final, and the final which is shown on both networks. A similar agreement exists for the European Championship. All games other than the final group games, which clash, are shown on BBC One or BBC Two, plus BBC HD. During those clashing games the game not shown on BBC One is shown on BBC Red Button. There are also nightly highlights and extensive interactive options.
At the minute all Scotland away games are shown live on BBC Scotland. The BBC also broadcast highlights of all Scotland home matches. This coverage is usually shown on BBC One Scotland or BBC Two Scotland and simulcast on BBC Red Button for the rest of the UK, though similarly it can appear on the nationwide networks. Until 2008 all Northern Ireland games whether Home or Away were shown by BBC Northern Ireland on BBC One NI or BBC Two NI and these were shown from the 1980s right up until 2008. In 2008 the rights transferred to Sky Sports and these were the last of the Home Nations to be shown by Sky but highlights of all home matches are broadcast on BBC NI and some away matches are still shown live but all matches are still broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster. BBC won back the domestic England and FA Cup contract in 2001 from Sky Sports so showed the England matches until 2005 and then showed all home matches from 2005 until 2008 and all away matches on Sky Sports however the rights transferred to ITV and Setanta in 2008 and now ITV show all home matches live and Sky show all away matches. The only England match that has been broadcast was highlights against Ukraine in 2009 on Match of the Day. Similar highlights arrangements exist for some of the Wales but these are made by BBC Wales for S4C and some away matches are shown by BBC Wales. No matches of the home nations are broadcast nationally now unless its a friendly or a tournament finals match because Sky hold all domestic live rights or ITV for the England matches
The BBC also show extensive highlights from the Barclays Premier League. Match of the Day shows highlights of each Saturday's games while the Sunday games are covered in Match of the Day 2. Football League highlights are shown on The Football League Show after Match of the Day. Football Focus airs each Saturday lunchtime to preview the weekend's games, followed later by up to the minute game reports in Final Score through the afternoon on BBC Red Button and BBC HD and later on BBC One. As the final whistles approach, coverage switches over to BBC One where Final Score continues in England and Wales, with Scottish viewers able to see Sportscene Results at this time for special focus on the Clydesdale Bank Premier League and the other divisions. SPL highlights are shown, also under the Sportscene umbrella on Monday evenings. In Northern Ireland a similar service is available, entitled Final Score from Northern Ireland which starts at 5pm after all the English and Scottish results are in with Gabby Logan and this is usually hosted by Mark Sidebottom or Gavin Andrews . In addition, BBC Sport also provides Scottish matches for the BBC Alba channel's strand, Spòrs. This includes delayed coverage of SPL matches and live Challenge Cup games.
Beginning in 2009, the BBC signed a three year contract to show ten Championship matches live annually, as well as one leg of each League Cup semi-final exclusively live and shared live coverage of the Final with Sky Sports. It also shows Football League and League Cup highlights shows. The BBC has not renewed the contract meaning that live coverage will revert exclusively to Sky Sports but it is looking likely that they will keep their highlights shows.
Highlights and live coverage of the Scottish Cup and Co-operative Insurance Cup is also shown by BBC Sport Scotland, and on BBC Red Button throughout the rest of the United Kingdom. BBC NI show highlights of the Carling Premiership, Co-Operative Insurance League Cup and JJB Sports Irish Cup on Final Score from Northern Ireland and show Live coverage of the finals of the Irish Cup and Irish League Cup on Match of the Day from Northern Ireland, these are hosted by Stephen Watson usually with Michael O'Neill, Jim Magilton or people from the local game and are commentated on by Jackie Fullerton or Joel Taggart
Match of the Day is anchored by Gary Lineker as has been since 1999. Match of the Day 2 is presented by Colin Murray and has been from the start of the 2010/2011 Premiership season. Murray is also a presenter on BBC Radio Five Live.
Dan Walker hosts Football Focus having taken over at the start of the 2009/10 season. Former host of the programme Manish Bhasin presents The Football League Show, as well as the BBC's League Cup highlights programme The League Cup Show and has done so since 2009. Gabby Logan is the current host of Final Score and also deputises on Match of the Day and MOTD 2 and she took over from Ray Stubbs who went to ESPN in 2009.
Other football hosts include Jake Humphrey who, when not presenting the BBC's Formula 1 coverage, deputises on Final Score and MOTD 2, as well as presenting some of the BBC's live Championship coverage. Former Radio 1 DJ and sports reporter Mark Chapman also deputises for Gabby Logan on Final Score, for Manish Bhasin on The Football League Show and presents occasional live international fixtures. He is also a regular football host on BBC Radio Five Live.
Recent former hosts of football on the BBC include:
The BBC's main football pundits are Alan Hansen, Alan Shearer, Lee Dixon, and Mark Lawrenson. they use people for tournaments that they do not use for MOTD like Leonardo, Martin O'Neill and Gordon Strachen. BBC Scotland use Pat Nevin and many others. BBC NI use local NI footballers like Chris Morgan but for big matches use Jim Magilton, John O'Neill and Michael O'Neill who is now Northern Ireland manager.
The BBC's main commentator is Guy Mowbray who is their number one and has since he commentated on the 2010 Football League Cup Final and the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final and he usually gets the bigger matches on MOTD and MOTD2. There other commentators are Jonathan Pearce who formerly was a leading commentator for Five, Steve Wilson, Simon Brotherton who also contributes to BBC Radio Five Live and recent addition Steve Bower. BBC Sport Scotland's main commentator is Paul Mitchell. The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship saw the retirement of the long-standing and popular commentator John Motson from live television football commentary, though he continues to work on Match of the Day and MOTD2 performs frequent live radio commentary for BBC Radio 5 Live.
The BBC uses summarisers when broadcasting live matches. Mark Lawrenson is the usual choice for big games like the FIFA World Cup tournament or the Football League Cup Final, whilst also summarising on BBC Radio 5 Live for Premier League matches. Mark Bright is also used to summarise live matches in the Football League Championship or at the Africa Cup of Nations. Other summarisers are Martin Keown and Iain Dowie.
Scottish coverage is presented by Richard Gordon, Dougie Donnelly and Dougie Vipond. David Currie presents the Saturday afternoon results programme. Jason Mohammad presented Wales on Saturday until the programme was discontinued at the end of the 2008/09 season. He is now one of the reporters for Final Score. However, he continues to present other Welsh football.
BBC NI coverage is hosted by Stephen Watson and they use Michael O'Neill and Jim Magilton for analysis for NI matches and local Footballers for Irish League Coverage. BBC NI main Commentator is Jackie Fullerton who has been from 1992 when he left UTV and commentates on all their main football coverage and NI matches, other commentators are Paul Gilmour who also works for Sky Sports, Joel Taggart who also works on BBC Radio Ulster and deputised for Jackie whenever he was ill in 2004 and 2005 and Michael McNamee who also works on BBC NI Rugby Coverage. BBC NI use John O'Neill or Gerry Armstrong as summarisers
Gary Lineker was the main presenter of the BBC's coverage of the 2010 World Cup from South Africa, fronting all major matches including games featuring England. The BBC's nightly highlights show was presented by Match of the Day 2 host Colin Murray. BBC reporters from both live matches and around South Africa include Gabby Logan, Dan Walker, Rob Walker and Colin Patterson. The BBC brought five commentators to the World Cup, these being Guy Mowbray, Jonathan Pearce, Steve Wilson, Simon Brotherton and Steve Bower, who were partnered by co-commentators Mark Lawrenson, Mark Bright, Mick McCarthy and Martin Keown. The BBC's expert panel of Football Pundits included Jürgen Klinsmann, Clarence Seedorf, Emmanuel Adebayor, Alan Hansen, Alan Shearer, Lee Dixon, Gordon Strachan, Roy Hodgson and Harry Redknapp
The BBC holds exclusive rights to the Six Nations championship in the UK and does so until 2017. It shows all matches in the tournament live on either BBC One or BBC Two. Coverage of these games is complemented by an interactive service on BBC Red Button. The BBC hold additional rights to the Autumn Internationals for the Irish, Scottish and Welsh sides, as well as highlights of the English team; coverage is again on BBC One or BBC Two.
The BBC held exclusive rights to show the EDF Energy Cup until the 2009/10 season when these rights were acquired by Sky Sports. BBC Wales, BBC Alba and BBC NI holds joint right to show the Magners League, along with S4C in Wales and RTE and TG4 in Ireland. BBC Wales and BBC NI shows matches on Friday evenings and usually BBC Wales coverage is shown across the rest of the UK on BBC Red Button. Highlights from the Magners League are shown in Scrum V on BBC2 Wales and BBC Red Button alongside briefer highlights in Wales on Saturday on BBC One. BBC Sport Wales/Chwaraeon Cymru also produces the Welsh language S4C's coverage of the Magners League and EDF Energy Cup under the Y Clwb Rygbi brand. This is because the BBC is obliged to provide S4C with several hours of programming a week. BBC Two in Wales often shows Wales national rugby union team under-20 Six Nations games, which are also shown on BBC Red Button in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
BBC Sport's rugby union coverage is currently presented by John Inverdale, Gabby Logan and some times Jason Mohammad. The main pundits used are Jeremy Guscott, Jonathan Davies, Andy Nicol, Keith Wood and Stuart Davies. The BBC's commentary team includes Eddie Butler, Andrew Cotter, Alistair Ekeyn and Conor McNamara are the other 2 BBC Commentators. Brian Moore, Philip Matthews and Jonathan Davies. Bill McLaren was the BBC's main commentator for many years before his retirement in 2002. BBC NI coverage is hosted by Stephen Watson or Gavin Andrews with pundits who used to play for Ulster such as Bryn Cunningham and Andy Ward, Commentary is by Jim Neilly and Ryan Constable
The BBC covers the Challenge Cup from the round in which the Super League clubs enter. The coverage is shown on BBC One and Two and will usually consist of two matches per round, one on a Saturday and the other on a Sunday. Highlights of the Super League are shown under the Super League Show title is shown overnight on a Sunday on BBC Two. Produced by BBC Yorkshire in Leeds, the show airs at an earlier mid-morning time-slot for viewers in some of the BBC's northern regions, where Rugby League is most popular. The National League play-offs are also covered on the Super League Show. From 2009, the BBC will hold the rights to show one England international each year and one non England rugby match per year.
Rugby League coverage is presented by Clare Balding and when she is unavailable it is hosted by Mark Chapman. The Super League Show is fronted by Harry Gration and Tanya Arnold. Ray French was the main commentator until 2009 when he decided to lessen his workload and stay commentating for the BBC but would be the number 2 commentator, Dave Woods is now number 1 Rugby League Commentator. John Kear and Jonathan Davies are the BBC's commentary team while Robbie Paul and Brian Noble are amongst the pundits. Dave Woods is the chief commentator for the Super League Show.
The BBC covered Formula One for many decades until 1996, initially covering the odd race on the calendar, before introducing in 1976 a programme which followed the entire championship. Formula One was shown under the Grand Prix banner, races were commentated on by Murray Walker, with many co-commentators including James Hunt and Jonathan Palmer. Coverage was expanded in the 1990s, when all qualifying and races were shown live - many with Steve Rider fronting the coverage. The loss of the rights to ITV was seen as an example of the BBC Sport department's decline in the late 1990s, although as with cricket, the BBC continued to broadcast every race live on its radio services.
2009 marked the return of BBC television coverage of Formula One after an absence of 12 years. A five year deal was announced in March 2008, replacing ITV's existing coverage.[8] Jake Humphrey anchored the coverage with David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan acting as pundits. Martin Brundle and David Coulthard provided the commentary (with Brundle also replicating his famous grid walks seen previously on ITV, while Ted Kravitz and Lee McKenzie were the pit lane reporters.[9] Brundle and Kravitz were the only two members of the ITV F1 team who made the move to the BBC F1 team. Legendary commentator Murray Walker, who commentated on F1 for both the BBC and ITV for over 50 years, returned as part of the team, providing analysis and opinion on the BBC's Formula One website.[10] In 2011 there was a change in the BBC Team: Jonathan Legard was replaced by Martin Brundle as Lead Commentator and David Coulthard joined him in the commentary box.
The red button coverage offered alternate Radio 5 Live commentary from David Croft, Anthony Davidson and Natalie Pinkham and for the 2009 season a CBBC commentary from Michael "Abs" Absalom, Dan Clarkson and Perry McCarthy was available. The red button also offers a split-screen (showing the main coverage alongside an onboard camera view and a rolling leader board) and a rolling highlights package. The Formula 1 Driver Tracker, provided by FOM, was introduced at the 2010 British Grand Prix and is available both online and on the red button. BBC Three plays a role in the Formula One coverage with a one hour highlights programme.[11] Friday and Saturday's free practice sessions are also shown on the red button.
In the middle of the 2011 season, the BBC announced that it had entered a new deal in which it would share the F1 broadcasting rights with Sky from 2012 until 2018,[12] including all practice and qualifying sessions in addition to the races. Sky would be able to show all the races live, and the BBC would be able to televise ten of the races live and show extended highlights of the remaining ten on a delayed broadcast.[13] The announcement was controversial, with early promises that the races would be uninterrupted by commercials[14] doing little to quell the highly negative reactions from fans and observers.[15][16] Before the last race of the season the BBC and Sky announced the full plan for 2012, revealing the races which the BBC would be able to broadcast live. [17]
Sky launched a new channel in March 2012 called Sky Sports F1 and Martin Brundle moved to commentate on Sky. On 7 December 2011, Sky announced that Ted Kravitz, David Croft, Anthony Davidson & Natalie Pinkham would be part of Sky's F1 team for 2012. The Sky coverage is hosted by Simon Lazenby who has Davidson and Brundle alongside him, with Brundle joining Croft in the commentary box before the race, and with Davidson covering practice sessions with Croft while Kravitz and Pinkham are in the pits. Georgie Thompson formerly of Sky Sports News joins Kravitz for The F1 Show.
BBC announced that Jake Humphrey, David Coulthard, Eddie Jordan, Ben Edwards and Lee McKenzie would be part of their coverage team in 2012. Later, it was confirmed that Gary Anderson would be joining them as technical analyst. The BBC Radio 5 Live F1 team left for Sky but it was announced on 5 January 2012 that James Allen would return to the commentary box for BBC Radio in 2012 with Jaime Alguersuari and former Moto GP presenter Jennie Gow as pit reporter.[18]
In 2003 the BBC won the rights to the MotoGP World Championship. After a successful first season fronted by Suzi Perry, coverage was expanded with more live races, and the contract was extended to the end of the 2013 season. The BBC now shows all MotoGP races, with all qualifying sessions live via the BBC Red Button. From the 2009 season, more coverage is available on qualifying and race days again through the use of the Red Button service.[19] Jennie Gow replaced Perry for 2010,[20] but from 2011 former pitlane reporter Matt Roberts becomes host, alongside the original and unchanged commentary team of Charlie Cox and Steve Parrish.[21] Azi Farni will replace Roberts as pitlane reporter.
BBC Sport has also covered the North West 200 since 2007 on BBC NI with coverage of race day live on BBC Sport NI website and 2 highlights programmes shown on BBC One NI after race day. These are available on the Iplayer and sometimes are broadcast on BBC Two nationally. These are hosted by Stephen Watson who hosts from the paddock and race commentary is usually with Steve Parrish, Keith Huweun, Philip McCallan, Philip Moore and many others.
The BBC holds the exclusive terrestrial rights to show Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics and has shown live coverage of every Summer Olympics since 1960. This long-standing association between the Olympic Games and the BBC will now include coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics to be held in London. Presenters for the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics have included many of the corporation's sports presenters, such as David Coleman, Frank Bough, Des Lynam, Steve Rider, Jake Humphrey, Sue Barker, Clare Balding and Hazel Irvine.
For many years, the BBC has covered the biggest events in athletics, stretching as far back as 1954, when Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile. Lead commentator for many decades was David Coleman, until his retirement after the 2000 Summer Olympics. The BBC covers events such as the Commonwealth Games, the European Athletics Championships, domestic British athletics and mass-participation events such as the London Marathon and the Great North Run. From 2010 following a shake up by the IAAF the BBC won the rights to stream live coverage of each Diamond League meeting on the red button, with the two British rounds and final two meetings live on BBC Two and selected meetings on BBC Three. The BBC lost the rights to the 2011 and 2013 World Championships to Channel 4. However in November 2011 it was announced that the BBC has obtained the TV, radio and online rights to the 2015 and 2017 IAAF World Athletics meetings, the latter being held in London. The BBC athletics presenting team consists of John Inverdale, Sue Barker, Hazel Irvine, Colin Jackson, Steve Cram, Jonathan Edwards, Denise Lewis, Stuart Storey, Paul Dickenson, Brendan Foster and Michael Johnson.
Although the amount of horse racing on the BBC has declined in recent years, many big races are still to be found on the BBC. The Grand National has for many years been one of the biggest attractions on Grandstand with audiences around or often in excess of 10 million for the race on a Saturday afternoon. Coverage of other events such as Royal Ascot and the Epsom Derby are also broadcast, with presenter Clare Balding fronting the coverage.
The Derby was won back after many years in 2001, when the BBC also gained rights to the Epsom Oaks, which had only ever previously been shown by ITV and Channel 4 (until 2001, the commercial broadcasters had always held the Epsom contract, but from 1960–1974, in 1977, and in 1979 the BBC had shown the Derby simultaneously with ITV, because it was a protected event which could not be exclusive to either channel). However, many important races have disappeared from the BBC in recent years: the Cheltenham Festival and other Cheltenham meetings went to Channel 4 in 1995, meetings from Newbury moved to Channel 4 in 2002, and after 50 years Glorious Goodwood and other Goodwood meetings were lost to Channel 4 in 2007. Also, in 2007 the Irish Derby, which had been included in Grandstand and later Sunday Grandstand for decades, was only shown on At The Races.
The most famous BBC TV racing broadcaster was Peter O'Sullevan, who became one of the first ever TV sports commentators in the immediate post-war years, and stayed with the BBC until 1997.
2012 will be the last year of any UK horse racing being broadcast on BBC Television following a deal signed with Channel 4.
The BBC holds exclusive UK rights to live coverage to one of the four men's major golf championships, The Open and joint rights to the US Masters, covering Saturday and Sunday's play live and broadcasting highlights of Thursday and Friday's play. Sky Sports show all four days of The Masters live. The BBC also cover two other European Tour events held in Britain - the BMW PGA Championship and the Scottish Open, although live coverage of these will finish in 2012 under the new contract negotiated with the European Tour where Sky Sports will hold exclusive coverage. Sky Sports will cover Thursday and Friday play live.[22] It also covers the Women's British Open. Highlights of the Ryder Cup and live coverage of the Walker Cup can also be seen on the BBC . Hazel Irvine is the lead presenter on the BBC. The BBC commentary and analysis team includes Peter Alliss, Ken Brown, Maureen Madill, Wayne Grady, Jean van de Velde, Phillip Parkin and Andrew Cotter
The 1960s BBC2 programme Pot Black was arguably the reason for the sport's great popularity over the last 40 years. Snooker produced the largest ever audience for BBC2 with the 1985 World Snooker Championship final between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor pulling in 18.5 million viewers just after midnight. The sport always pulls in large viewing figures for the BBC through tournaments such as the World Snooker Championships, the Masters and the UK Championship. The coverage is regularly hosted by Hazel Irvine or Rishi Persad. The pundits are commonly Steve Davis and John Parrott with the commentary team consisting mainly of former champions of the sport, such as Ken Doherty, Willie Thorne, Dennis Taylor, John Virgo and more recently Stephen Hendry.
David Vine was the main host when BBC first showed Snooker in 1978 until 2000 when he retired, David Icke was his deputy when he was unavailable. Icke was replaced by Dougie Donnelly in the early 1990s and Donnelly became main presenter after Vine's retirement for 2 years. Matt Smith was deputy from 2000 until 2002. In 2002 Ray Stubbs and Hazel Irvine took over, Ray Stubbs left in 2009 and was replaced by Rishi Persad who only joined when Hazel missed the 2009 championships because she was on Maternity Leave. Ted Lowe was the BBCs lead commentator from the first time the BBC showed Snooker until his retirement in 1996. Clive Everton was then main commentator until his role was reduced in 2009 and now he only appears in the early stages of a tournament alongside the likes of Neal Foulds and Terry Griffiths.
The BBC has most recently carried highlights of ICC tournaments such as the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup, held in the West Indies, and the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 which was staged in England. Highlights of the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup was also broadcast on BBC. BBC Red Button offers live Test Match Special radio commentary with on-screen scorecards and graphic for all England's home Test, ODI and T20 matches. They occasionally show Live Cricket on the BBC Red Button whenever a Scotland or Ireland match is being covered by BBC Scotland or BBC Northern Ireland
The BBC currently holds the rights to highlights (primarily broadcast on its web site) and live radio coverage of the NFL. Since 2007, the BBC has also broadcast the Super Bowl live on television.[23]
Jake Humphrey presented their play-off highlights show for the first 2 years with Matt Roberts taking over duties in 2010. Both featured in the Super Bowl coverage for 2010. Current studio pundits include Mike Carlson, Rod Woodson, and Jerry Rice. They also show highlights of the International Series game from Wembley stadium and in 2011 Mark Chapman presented highlights of this which means he may be presenter for the Super Bowl in 2012.
For Super Bowl XLV, Jake Humphrey took over presenting duties on his own, whilst Matt Roberts did the weekly playoff highlights show leading up to the game. Tiki Barber and Mike Carlson were the two pundits for the Super Bowl, and Carlson also did the playoff highlights as well. They took the game feed from Fox Sports, with the commentary from Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. Michael Johnson hosted a special Inside Sport programme before and after the game for the BBC.
They will again air live weekly radio coverage of the NFL on BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra and air the Super Bowl on BBC TV and on BBC Radio Five Live in 2012.
As well as all of this, BBC shows the BDO World Darts Championships, they have shown this from 1978 to 2011 exclusively and will show it together with ESPN in 2012. Hosts for this have included David Vine in 1978 Peter Purves from 1979–1984, Tony Gubba from 1985–1990, Eamon Holmes from 1991–1993, Dougie Donnelly from 1994–1999, John Inverdale in 2000, Ray Stubbs from 2001–2009 and Colin Murray from 2010–present. Bobby George has presented as well from 2000–present. Commentators are Sid Waddell 1978-1994, Tony Green 1978-2010, 2012–present, Vassos Alexander 2011–present and David Croft 2003–present and John Part 1995-2007.
They also cover the Alpine Skiing World Cup under its Ski Sunday banner; and briefly covers sports such as road and track cycling, sailing, badminton, table tennis, squash, equestrianism, gymnastics and other minority sports in an attempt to publicise the type of sports that will make up the forthcoming London 2012 Olympics. Presenters for these sports include Jill Douglas and Phil Jones who often report for other areas of BBC Sport.
BBC Sport regained coverage of the Boat Race from ITV Sport who pulled out of coverage after the 2009 event. A 5 year contract was signed by BBC Sport to cover the event from 2010 after last covering the 2004 race. Clare Balding hosts this and Commentary is from Andrew Cotter.
One of BBC Sport's major criticisms is that it no longer shows any live cricket games, having lost coverage of the Test Matches in 1999 to Channel 4 who then lost to Sky Sports in 2005. Coverage was fronted by Tony Lewis for many years. The BBC was also widely criticised for not even bidding for the rights to show home Test matches when the next set of rights between 2006 and 2009 went up for sale, a decision which it also took for the next contract running until 2013 with the corporation claiming it could neither afford the cost of the rights or fit into their schedules. That honour went exclusively (and rather controversially) to Sky, with nightly highlights on Five.
Radio 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra broadcast England matches and some county cricket (along with the BBC's various local stations); many of these radio commentaries are simulcast on BBC Red Button with live scorecards.
The BBC also broadcast the World Rally Championships until 2001, when Channel 4 bought the rights. WRC is now shown on ESPN. The British Touring Car Championship was another event the BBC lost when ITV took the broadcasting rights in 2002.
After losing the rights to Formula One and the World Rally Championship, the BBC dabbled in British and World Superbikes for a few years — often showing the World Championship version live. After acquiring the rights to the MotoGP World Championship in 2003 coverage of the World and British Superbikes was dropped, presently picked up by Eurosport with highlights on Channel 4 and ITV4 respectively.
BBC Sport has monopolised the sports commentary market on British radio since the BBC's conception but since 2000, has lost coverage of some sporting events to TalkSPORT. BBC Sport provides Sport coverage for BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 and broadcasts its radio commentaries on BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra under their Five Live Sports banner, BBC Radio 4, the BBC World Service and online on the BBC website.
In 2006 BBC Sport won six of the seven available Saturday afternoon broadcast rights packages of 32 games each from the Premier League for three seasons from August 2007.
BBC Sport operates a sub-site of BBC Online which supplements the television and radio services of the department. The website features scores and analysis from a variety of sports including those not broadcast by the BBC. The site also includes news stories related to teams or particular sports and live broadcast coverage of some sports.
The website launched c.2000 and was relaunched in 2003 to accommodate bigger screen sizes, with a sidebar to incorporate more sport and to parallel the relaunched BBC News website.[24] The current look was implemented in February 2012, featuring the bold colour scheme of the logo, the new horizontal navigation bar across the whole of the site and design characteristics being implemented across the BBC website. The new look gave more prominance to live sports, programmes and events as well as news on the individual teams.[25]
Until 2011, the BBC Sport website hosted an online sports forum entitled 606, named after the original start-time of the radio programme - six minutes past six. It covered a large variety of topics which included cricket, football, rugby (league and union), tennis, athletics, motorsport and many more. Sporting teams usually had their own individual pages where members could post and comment on any news or topics relating to that team. Users accessed through an account system and could comment and rate their opinions. The forum was moderated by the BBC and any posts deemed to have broken the 'house rules' was not posted.
As part of the reduction in BBC Online's budget of 25%, all non-essential services that did not focus around core products were closed. As all posts had to be post moderated, and as conversations were increasingly being done through social media websites that BBC Sport were a part of, the site was closed on 31 May 2011.[26]
BBC Sport also offers a service on the BBC Red Button interactive television service. The service offers a sports multi-screen service covering sports news stories in addition to five streams that can broadcast sport through the red button. This is often used for uninterupted coverage and scores over a commentary, or for an alternative sport event unable to be covered on the main BBC TV or Radio services.[27] A key example is of the broadcasts of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships as matches on other courts may be displayed through the red button while a higher ranking match on a main court is taking place on the main TV service.[28]
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Buzzcocks | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Origin | Bolton, England |
Genres | Punk rock, pop punk,[1] New Wave[2][3][4] |
Years active | 1976–1981 1989–present |
Labels | United Artists, I.R.S., Cooking Vinyl, ROIR, EMI |
Associated acts | Flag of Convenience Magazine |
Website | www.buzzcocks.com |
Members | |
Pete Shelley Steve Diggle Chris Remmington Danny Farrant |
|
Past members | |
Howard Devoto Garth Mick Singleton John Maher Barry Adamson Steve Garvey Mike Joyce Tony Barber Phil Barker |
Buzzcocks are an English punk rock band formed in Bolton in 1976, led by singer–songwriter–guitarist Pete Shelley and singer-songwriter-guitarist Steve Diggle.[5]
They are regarded as an important influence on the Manchester music scene, the independent record label movement, punk rock, power pop, pop punk and indie rock. They achieved commercial success with singles that fused pop craftsmanship with rapid-fire punk energy. These singles were collected on Singles Going Steady, described by critic Ned Raggett as a "punk masterpiece".[6] The widely covered "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)" remains one of their best-known songs, along with "Harmony in my Head".
The name "Buzzcocks" was chosen by Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley after reading the headline "it's the buzz, cocks!" in a review of the TV series Rock Follies in Time Out magazine. The "buzz" is the excitement of playing on stage; "cock" is Manchester slang meaning "mate" (as in friend/buddy). They thought it captured the excitement of the Sex Pistols and nascent punk scene.[7]
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Howard Trafford, a student at Bolton Institute of Technology (now the University of Bolton), placed a notice in the college looking for musicians sharing a liking for The Velvet Underground's song "Sister Ray".[8] Peter McNeish,[9] a fellow student at the Institute, responded to the notice. Trafford played electronic music[9] and McNeish had played rock.
McNeish assumed the stage name Pete Shelley, and Trafford named himself Howard Devoto, after a bus driver in Cambridge. In late 1975, Shelley and Devoto recruited a drummer and formed an embryonic version of Buzzcocks that did not perform in front of an audience and which dissolved after a number of rehearsals.[citation needed] The band formed as Buzzcocks in February 1976 and performed live for the first time on 1 April 1976 at their college. Garth Davies played bass guitar and Mick Singleton played drums. Singleton also played in local band Black Cat Bone.[10]
After reading an NME review of the Sex Pistols' first performance, Shelley and Devoto travelled to London together to see the Sex Pistols in February 1976. Shelley and Devoto were impressed by what they saw and arranged for the Sex Pistols to come and perform at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester, in June 1976. Buzzcocks intended to play at this concert, but the other musicians dropped out, and Shelley and Devoto were unable to recruit other musicians in time for the gig. Once they had recruited bass guitarist Steve Diggle and drummer John Maher, they made their debut opening for the Sex Pistols' second Manchester concert in July 1976. A brief clip of Devoto-era Buzzcocks performing The Troggs' "I Can't Control Myself" appears in the Punk: Attitude documentary directed by Don Letts. In September 1976 the band travelled to London to perform at the two-day 100 Club Punk Festival, organised by Malcolm McLaren. Other performers included: the Sex Pistols, Subway Sect, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Clash, The Vibrators, The Damned and the French band Stinky Toys.
By the end of the year, Buzzcocks had recorded and released a four-track EP, Spiral Scratch, on their own New Hormones label, making them one of the first punk groups to establish an independent record label, trailing only The Saints' "(I'm) Stranded". Produced by Martin Hannett, the music was roughly recorded, insistently repetitive, and energetic. "Boredom" announced punk's rebellion against the status quo while templating a strident musical minimalism (the guitar solo consisting of two repeated notes). The demos recorded while Devoto was in the band were later issued officially as Time's Up. Long available as a bootleg, this album includes the alternative takes of all the tracks from the Spiral Scratch EP as well as early version of tracks that later appeared on the official debut Another Music in a Different Kitchen.
After a few months, Devoto left the group; he returned to college for a year, then formed Magazine. Pete Shelley continued as vocalist; his high-pitched, melodic singing stood in stark contrast to the gruff pub rock vocal stylings of many punk contemporaries. Diggle switched from bass to guitar, and Garth Davies rejoined on bass as Garth Smith or Garth. Garth appeared on the band’s first Radio 1 Peel Session, in September 1977, but due to his alcoholism he was quickly replaced with Steve Garvey, joining Dirty Looks in New York. This new line-up signed with United Artists Records.
Their first UA Buzzcocks single, "Orgasm Addict", was a playful examination of compulsive sexuality that was (and remains) uncommonly bold. The BBC refused to play the song, but the single sold well. Later, more ambiguous songs staked out a territory defined by Shelley's bisexuality and punk's aversion to serious examination of human sexuality. The next single, "What Do I Get?" reached the UK top 40 charts.[11] "Lipstick", the B-side to "Promises," shared the same ascending progression of notes in its chorus as Magazine's first single, "Shot By Both Sides," also released in 1978.
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Sample of "Fast Cars" by Buzzcocks, from Another Music in a Different Kitchen (1978)
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Their original career produced three LPs: Another Music in a Different Kitchen, Love Bites, and A Different Kind of Tension, each supported by extensive touring in Europe and the U.S. Their trademark sound was a marriage of catchy pop melodies with punk guitar energy, backed by an unusually tight and skilled rhythm section. They advanced drastically in musical and lyrical sophistication: by the end they were quoting American writer William S. Burroughs ("A Different Kind of Tension"), declaiming their catechism in the anthem "I Believe", and tuning in to a fantasy radio station on which their songs could be heard ("Radio Nine"). In 1980, Liberty Records signed the band, and three singles were released. However, only one of these, the double 'A' side "Why She's A Girl From The Chainstore/Are Everything" made the Top 75.
In parallel with Buzzcocks, Pete Shelley formed a more experimental and post-punk band, The Tiller Boys, along with Eric Random and Francis Cookson, while Steve Garvey joined The Teardrops in 1978, along with The Fall's Tony Friel and Karl Burns; both bands were releasing material in late 1970s and broke up at the same time as Buzzcocks.
After recording demos for a fourth album the group disbanded in 1981, when Shelley took up a solo career. Diggle and Maher formed Flag of Convenience, who released several singles between 1982 and 1989. Garvey formed Motivation and joined Blue Orchids, moving to New York, shortly afterwards, to continue with the first band. Maher had joined Wah! by the time Buzzcocks broke up. Shelley and Devoto teamed up in 2002 for the first time since 1976, producing the album Buzzkunst, 'Kunst' being the German word for 'Art'. The album was a mix of electronic music and punk.
John Maher now owns and runs John Maher Racing, a vintage Volkswagen performance tuning workshop located on the Isle of Harris, Scotland.[12] He has built and raced several Volkswagen Beetles. In 2005, Shelley re-recorded "Ever Fallen In Love" with an all-star group, including Roger Daltrey, David Gilmour, Peter Hook, Elton John, Robert Plant and several contemporary bands, as a tribute to John Peel. Proceeds went to Amnesty International. Shelley also performed the song live, with Plant, Daltrey, Gilmour, Hook and Jeff Beck at the 2005 UK Music Hall of Fame.[13]
Buzzcocks have reformed several times since 1989, featuring Shelley and Diggle with other musicians; initially with Maher and Garvey for a world tour, then briefly replacing Maher with Smiths drummer Mike Joyce. In 1992, Tony Barber joined on bass and Phil Barker on drums. This line-up toured on one of Nirvana's last-ever tours in 1994. Buzzcocks toured as the opener for Pearl Jam in 2003. In April 2006, Barker left and was replaced by Danny Farrant. In March 2006, the band released their eighth studio album, Flat-Pack Philosophy, on Cooking Vinyl Records, the supporting tour found them playing on a leg of the mid-2006 Vans Warped Tour.
They made an appearance for Maxïmo Park's homecoming gig in Newcastle upon Tyne on 15 December 2007.
In April 2008, Barber left and was replaced by Chris Remmington.
In January 2009 the band embarked on a UK and European tour, the "Another Bites Tour", in which they played their first two albums in full, as well as an encore of their other hits.[14]
In July 2009, Buzzcocks played in Serbia for the second time, at the EXIT festival in Novi Sad. Their song, "Why Can't I Touch It" was played in the second episode of the sixth season of TV series Entourage.
On 9 November 2009, Buzzcocks gave a very rare performance on a small balcony overlooking Dame Street in Dublin, for the music viral show BalconyTV.[15]
In December 2009 they played as the main support act for The Courteeners.[16]
In August 2011 they headlined the first night of The Rhythm Festival in Bedfordshire.
In November 2011 it was announced they would be playing two shows in 2012 that will feature the original line-up as well as the classic line-up of the band reunited for the first time in many years; these shows will take place on 25 May 2012 in Manchester at the O2 Apollo and on 26 May in Brixton at the O2 Academy. It was announced on the 26th of May 2012 that they'll will for the first time ever headline Thursday night in the Empress Ballroom at the Rebellion Festival in Blackpool sharing the stage with the likes of Rancid, Public Image Limited and Social Distortion.[17]
Buzzcocks' name was combined with the title of the Sex Pistols' album Never Mind the Bollocks to create the title of the long-running UK comedy panel game show Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Diggle claimed in his autobiography that he and Shelley had only granted the BBC use of their name under the impression that it would be a one-off, probably unsuccessful pilot, and that they are now mildly disgruntled that the name is more readily associated in Britain with the TV series than with their band.[18] Shelley himself appeared on the programme in 2000, where host Mark Lamarr introduced Shelley by saying that without Buzzcocks "there'd be no Smiths or Radiohead, and this show would be called Never Mind Joan Armatrading!"
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This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may only interest a specific audience. Please help relocate any relevant information, and remove excessive detail that may be against Wikipedia inclusion policy. (December 2011) |
Andy Murray at the 2011 Japan Open |
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Country | Great Britain |
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Residence | London, England |
Born | (1987-05-15) 15 May 1987 (age 25) Glasgow, Scotland[1][2] |
Height | 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) |
Weight | 84 kg (190 lb; 13.2 st) |
Turned pro | 2004 |
Plays | Right-handed (two-handed backhand) |
Career prize money | $20,376,752[3] |
Official web site | www.andymurray.com |
Singles | |
Career record | 345–114 (75%) |
Career titles | 22 |
Highest ranking | No. 2 (17 August 2009) |
Current ranking | No. 4 (28 May 2012) |
Grand Slam Singles results | |
Australian Open | F (2010, 2011) |
French Open | SF (2011) |
Wimbledon | SF (2009, 2010, 2011) |
US Open | F (2008) |
Other tournaments | |
Tour Finals | SF (2008, 2010) |
Olympic Games | 1R (2008) |
Doubles | |
Career record | 45–53 |
Career titles | 2 |
Highest ranking | No. 51 (17 October 2011) |
Current ranking | No. 70 (28 May 2012) |
Grand Slam Doubles results | |
Australian Open | 1R (2006) |
French Open | 2R (2006) |
Wimbledon | 1R (2005) |
US Open | 2R (2008) |
Other Doubles tournaments | |
Olympic Games | 2R (2008) |
Last updated on: 28 May 2012. |
Andrew "Andy" Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a Scottish professional tennis player, ranked No. 4 in the world,[3] and was ranked No. 2 from 17 to 31 August 2009.[4] Murray achieved a top-10 ranking by the Association of Tennis Professionals for the first time on 16 April 2007. He has been runner-up in three Grand Slam finals: the 2008 US Open, the 2010 Australian Open and the 2011 Australian Open, losing the first two to Roger Federer and the third to Novak Djokovic. In 2011, Murray became only the seventh player in the Open Era to reach the semi-finals of all four Grand Slam tournaments in one year.[5]
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Andy Murray was born to Will and Judy in Glasgow, Scotland.[1][2] His maternal grandfather, Roy Erskine, was a professional footballer who played reserve team matches for Hibernian and in the Scottish Football League for Stirling Albion and Cowdenbeath.[6][7][8][9] Murray's brother, Jamie, is also a professional tennis player, playing on the doubles circuit.[10] Following the separation of his parents when he was nine years old, Andy and Jamie lived with their father.[11] Murray later attended Dunblane High School.[12][13] Murray is in a five-year relationship with Kim Sears, who is regularly seen attending his matches. The relationship ended briefly in 2009 before they reconciled a short time later in 2010.[14][15][16]
At 15, Murray was asked to train with Rangers Football Club at their School of Excellence, but declined, opting to focus on his tennis career instead.[17] Murray's tennis idol is Andre Agassi.[18]
Murray was born with a bipartite patella, where the kneecap remains as two separate bones instead of fusing together in early childhood.[19] He was diagnosed at the age of 16 and had to stop playing tennis for six months. Murray is seen frequently to hold his knee due to the pain caused by the condition and has pulled out of events because of it,[20] but manages it through a number of different approaches.[21]
Murray attended Dunblane Primary School, and was present during the 1996 Dunblane school massacre.[22] Thomas Hamilton killed 17 people before turning one of his four guns on himself. Murray took cover in a classroom.[23] Murray says he was too young to understand what was happening and is reluctant to talk about it in interviews, but in his autobiography Hitting Back he says that he attended a youth group run by Hamilton, and that his mother gave Hamilton lifts in her car.[24]
Murray began playing tennis at age 5.[25] Leon Smith, Murray's tennis coach from 11 to 17,[26] said he had never seen a five-year-old like Murray, describing him as "unbelievably competitive". Murray attributes his abilities to the motivation gained from losing to his older brother Jamie. He first beat Jamie in an under-12s final in Solihull, afterwards teasing Jamie until his brother hit him hard enough to lose a nail on his left hand.[27] At the age of 12, Murray won his age group at the Orange Bowl, a prestigious event for junior players.[28] He briefly played football before reverting to tennis.[29] When Murray was 15 years old he decided to move to Barcelona, Spain. There he studied at the Schiller International School and trained on the clay courts of the Sánchez-Casal Academy. Murray described this time as "a big sacrifice".[13] While in Spain, he trained with Emilio Sánchez, formerly the world no. 1 doubles player.[13]
In July 2003, Murray started out on the Challenger and Futures circuit. In his first tournament, he reached the quarterfinals of the Manchester challenger. In his next tournament, Murray lost on clay in the first round to future world top-tenner Fernando Verdasco. In September, Murray won his first senior title by taking the Glasgow Futures event. He also reached the semifinals of the Edinburgh Futures event.[citation needed] In July 2004 Murray played a Futures event in Nottingham, where he lost to future Grand Slam finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round. Murray then went on to win events in Xàtiva and Rome.
In September 2004, he won the Junior US Open by beating Sergiy Stakhovsky, now a top-100 player. He was selected for the Davis Cup match against Austria later that month;[30] however, he was not selected to play. Later that year, he won BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.[31]
Murray began 2005 ranked 407 in the world.[32] In March, he became the youngest Briton ever to play in the Davis Cup,[33] as he helped Britain win the tie with a crucial doubles win. Following the tie, Murray turned professional in April,[34] as he played his first ATP tournament. Murray was given a wild card to a clay-court tournament in Barcelona, the Open SEAT, where he lost in three sets to Jan Hernych.[35] Murray then reached the semifinals of the boys' French Open, which was his first junior tournament since the US Open.[36] In the semi finals Murray lost in straight sets to Marin Čilić,[37] after he had defeated Juan Martín del Potro in the quarter-finals.[38]
Given a wild card to Queen's,[39] Murray progressed past Santiago Ventura in straight sets for his first ATP win.[citation needed] He followed this up with another straight-sets win against Taylor Dent. In the last 16, he played former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson, where he lost the match in three sets. After losing the opener on a tie-break, Murray won the second on a tie-break, but the onset of cramp and an ankle injury sealed the match 6–7, 7–6, 5–7 in Johansson's favour.[40][41] Following his performance at Queen's, Murray received a wild card for Wimbledon.[42] Ranked 312, he defeated George Bastl and 14th seed Radek Štěpánek in the opening two rounds in straight sets, thereby becoming the first Scot in the open era to reach the third round of the men's singles tournament at Wimbledon.[43] In the third round, Murray played 2002 Wimbledon finalist David Nalbandian[44] and lost 7–6, 6–1, 0–6, 4–6, 1–6.
Following Wimbledon, Murray played in Newport at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, where he lost in the second round. He had a wild card for the US Open, as he was the Junior champion. In the run-up to the tournament, Murray won Challengers on the hard courts of Aptos, which sent him into the top 200, and Binghamton, New York. He also experienced his first Masters event at Cincinnati, where he beat Dent again in straight sets, before losing in three sets to world no. 4 Marat Safin. Murray played Andrei Pavel in the opening round of the US Open. Murray recovered from being down two sets to one to win his first five-set match,[45] despite being sick on court.[46] He lost in the second round to Arnaud Clément in another five set contest.[47] Murray was again selected for the Davis Cup match against Switzerland. He was picked for the opening singles rubbers, losing in straight sets to Stanislas Wawrinka.[48] Murray then made his first ATP final at the Thailand Open. In the final, he faced world no. 1 Roger Federer, losing in straight sets. On 3 October, Murray achieved a top-100 ranking for the first time.[49] In his last tournament of the year, an ATP event in Basel Murray faced British no. 1 Tim Henman in the opening round.[50] Murray defeated him in three sets, before doing the same to Tomáš Berdych. He then suffered a third-round loss to Fernando González. He completed the year ranked 64 and was named the 2005 BBC Scotland Sports Personality of the Year.[51]
2006 saw Murray compete on the full circuit for the first time and split with his coach Mark Petchey[52] and team up with Brad Gilbert.[53]
Getting his season under way at the Adelaide International, Murray won his opening match of 2006 against Paolo Lorenzi in three sets, before bowing out to Tomáš Berdych. Murray's season then moved to Auckland, where he beat Kenneth Carlsen. Murray then lost three matches in a row including a first round matche at the Australian Open. Murray stopped the run as he beat Mardy Fish in straight sets when the tour came to San Jose, California; going on to win his first ATP title, the SAP Open, defeating world no. 11 Lleyton Hewitt in the final.[54] The run to the final included his first win over a top-ten player, Andy Roddick,[55] the world no. 3, to reach his second ATP final, which he won. Murray backed this up with a quarterfinal appearance in Memphis, falling to Söderling. Murray won just three times between the end of February and the middle of June, the run included a first round defeat to Gael Monfils at the French Open, in five sets.[56] After the French Open, where Murray was injured again, he revealed that his bones hadn't fully grown, causing him to suffer from cramps and back problems.[57]
At the Nottingham Open, Murray recorded consecutive wins for the first time since Memphis, with wins over Dmitry Tursunov and Max Mirnyi, before bowing out to Andreas Seppi in the quarterfinals. He progressed to the fourth round at Wimbledon, beating Nicolás Massú, Julien Benneteau, and Roddick, before succumbing to Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis. Murray reached the semifinals of the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, defeating Ricardo Mello, Sam Querrey, and Robert Kendrick, with his first main tour whitewash (also known as a double bagel). He exited in the semifinals to Justin Gimelstob. Murray then won a Davis Cup rubber against Andy Ram, coming back from two sets down, but lost the doubles alongside Jamie Delgado, after being 2 sets to 1 up. The tie was over before Murray could play the deciding rubber. His good form continued as the tour moved to the hard courts of the USA, where he recorded a runner-up position at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic losing to Arnaud Clément in the final. Murray then reached his first Masters Series semifinal in Toronto at the Rogers Cup, beating David Ferrer, Tim Henman, Carlos Moyá, and Jarkko Nieminen along the way, before exiting to Richard Gasquet in straight sets. At the ATP Masters Series event in Cincinnati, Murray defeated Henman, before becoming only one of two players, alongside Rafael Nadal, to defeat Roger Federer in 2006. This was followed by a win over Robbie Ginepri and a loss to Andy Roddick. He also reached the fourth round of the US Open losing in four sets to Davydenko, including a whitewash in the final set.[citation needed] In the Davis Cup, Murray won both his singles rubbers, but lost the doubles, as Britain won the tie. As the tour progressed to Asia, he lost to Henman for the first time in straight sets in Bangkok. In the final two Masters events in Madrid and Paris, Murray exited both tournaments at the last-16 stage ending his season, with losses to Novak Djoković and Dominik Hrbatý.
In November Murray split with his coach Brad Gilbert[58] and added a team of experts along with Miles Maclagan, his main coach.[59] Ahead of the first event of the season Murray signed a sponsorship deal with Highland Spring worth £1m. It was reportedly the biggest shirt-sponsorship deal in tennis.[60] The season started well for Murray as he reached the final of the Qatar Open. He defeated Filippo Volandri, Christophe Rochus, Max Mirnyi and Nikolay Davydenko, before falling to Ivan Ljubičić in straight sets. Murray reached the fourth round of the Australian Open.[61] After defeating Alberto Martín for the loss of one game, then beating Fernando Verdasco and Juan Ignacio Chela in straight sets, in the round of 16 Murray lost a five-set match against world No. 2 Rafael Nadal, 7–6, 4–6, 6–4, 3–6, 1–6.[62] He then successfully defended his San Jose title, defeating Kevin Kim, Kristian Pless, Hyung-Taik Lee, Andy Roddick and Ivo Karlović to retain the tournament.[63]
Murray then made the semi-finals of his next three tournaments. Making the semis in Memphis, he defeated Frank Dancevic, Pless and Stefan Koubek before a reverse to Roddick. In Indian Wells, Murray won against Wesley Moodie, Nicolas Mahut, Nikolay Davydenko and Tommy Haas before falling to Novak Djoković. At Miami, Murray was victorious against Paul Goldstein, Robert Kendrick, Paul-Henri Mathieu and Roddick, before going down to Djokovic for the second tournament running.
Before the clay season Murray defeated Raemon Sluiter in the Davis Cup to help Britain win the tie. In his first tournament in Rome, Murray lost in the first round to Gilles Simon in three sets. In Hamburg, Murray played Volandri first up. In the first set, Murray was 5–1 when he hit a forehand from the back of the court and snapped the tendons in his wrist.[64]
Murray missed a large part of the season including the French Open and Wimbledon.[65] He returned at the Rogers Cup in Canada. In his first match he defeated Robby Ginepri in straight sets[66] before bowing out to Fabio Fognini. At the Cincinnati Masters Murray drew Marcos Baghdatis in the first round and won only three games. At the US Open Murray beat Pablo Cuevas in straight sets before edging out Jonas Björkman in a five-setter. Murray lost in the third round to Lee in four sets.
Murray played in Great Britain's winning Davis Cup tie against Croatia, beating Marin Čilić in five sets. Murray hit form, as he then reached the final at the Metz International after knocking out Janko Tipsarević, Michaël Llodra, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Guillermo Cañas. He lost to Tommy Robredo in the final, despite winning the first set 6–0. Murray had early exits in Moscow and Madrid; falling to Tipsarević after winning against Evgeny Korolev in Moscow and to Nadal after defeating Radek Štěpánek and Chela in Madrid.
Murray improved as he won his third ATP title at the St. Petersburg Open, beating Mirnyi, Lukáš Dlouhý, Dmitry Tursunov, Mikhail Youzhny and Fernando Verdasco to claim the title. In his final tournament in Paris, Murray went out in the quarter-finals. He beat Jarkko Nieminen and Fabrice Santoro before falling to Richard Gasquet. With that result he finished at No. 11 in the world, just missing out on a place at the Masters Cup.
Murray re-entered the top-ten rankings early in 2008, winning the Qatar ExxonMobil Open with wins over Olivier Rochus, Rainer Schüttler, Thomas Johansson, Nikolay Davydenko and Stanislas Wawrinka for the title. He was the ninth seed at the Australian Open but was defeated by eventual runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first round.[67]
Murray took his second title of the year at the Open 13 after beating Jesse Huta Galung, Wawrinka, Nicolas Mahut, Paul-Henri Mathieu and Marin Čilić. But Murray exited to Robin Haase in straight sets in Rotterdam. In Dubai Murray defeated Roger Federer in three sets before doing the same to Fernando Verdasco and falling short against Davydenko. At Indian Wells Murray defeated Jürgen Melzer and Ivo Karlović in three sets and crashed out to Tommy Haas, before a first-match exit to Mario Ančić in Miami.
On the clay courts in Monte Carlo Murray defeated Feliciano López and Filippo Volandri before winning just four games against Novak Djoković. Ančić then handed Murray another first-match defeat in Barcelona. In Rome Murray first played Juan Martín del Potro in an ill-tempered three-set match. Murray won his first match in Rome[68] when Del Potro retired with an injury. Murray was warned for bad language and there was disagreement between the two players where Murray claimed that Del Potro insulted his mother, who was in the crowd, and deliberately aimed a ball at his head.[69][70] In the next round Murray lost in straight sets to Wawrinka. In his last tournament before the French Open Murray participated in Hamburg. He defeated Dmitry Tursunov and Gilles Simon before a defeat against Rafael Nadal. At Roland Garros he overcame local boy Jonathan Eysseric in five sets and clay-courter José Acasuso, where he lost just four games. He ended the tournament after a defeat by Nicolás Almagro in four sets in the third round.
At Queen's Murray played just two games of his opening match before Sébastien Grosjean withdrew. Against Ernests Gulbis Murray slipped on the damp grass and caused a sprain to his thumb.[71] He won the match in 3 but withdrew ahead of his quarter-final against Andy Roddick.[72] Any thought that he would pull out of Wimbledon was unfounded as he made the start line to reach the quarter-finals for the first time. Murray defeated Fabrice Santoro, Xavier Malisse in three sets and Tommy Haas in 4, before the one of the matches of the tournament. Murray found himself two sets down to Richard Gasquet who was serving for the match. Murray broke and took the set to a tie-break, before the shot of the tournament on set point. Murray hit a backhand winner from way off the court, when he was almost in the stands.[73] Murray progressed through the fourth set before an early break in the 5th. Gasquet failed to break back in the next game and made a complaint about the light. But Murray completed a 5–7, 3–6, 7–6, 6–2, 6–4 win.[74] In the next round Murray was defeated by world No. 2 Nadal in straight sets.
In his first tournament after Wimbledon, the Rogers Cup, Murray defeated Johansson, Wawrinka and Djokovic before losing to Nadal in the semi-finals. The Nadal loss was Murray's last defeat in ATP events for three months. In Cincinnati Murray went one better than in Canada as he reached his first ATP Masters Series final. He beat Sam Querrey, Tursunov, Carlos Moyá and Karlovic to make the final. Murray showed no signs of nerves as on debut he won his first Masters Shield, defeating Djokovic in two tie-breakers. At the Olympics, which is ITF organised, Murray was dumped out in round one by Yen-Hsun Lu,[75] citing a lack of professionalism on his part.[76]
Murray then went to New York to participate in the US Open. He became the first Briton since Greg Rusedski in 1997 to reach a Grand Slam final. Murray defeated Sergio Roitman, Michaël Llodra and won against Melzer after being two sets down.[77] He then beat Wawrinka to set up a match with Del Potro;[78] he overcame Nadal in the semi-finals after a four-set battle, beating him for the first time, in a rain-affected match that lasted for two days.[79] In the final he lost in straight sets to Roger Federer.[80][81]
Murray beat Alexander Peya and Jürgen Melzer in the Davis Cup tie against Austria, but it was in vain as Great Britain lost the deciding rubber. He returned to ATP tournaments in Madrid, where he won his second consecutive Masters shield. He defeated Simone Bolelli, Čilić (for the first time in 2008) and Gaël Monfils before avenging his US Open final loss against Federer in three sets, and taking the title against Simon. Murray then made it three ATP tournament wins on the bounce with his 5th title of the year at the St Petersburg Open, where Murray beat Viktor Troicki, Gulbis, Janko Tipsarević, without dropping a set, before thrashing Verdasco for the loss of just three games in the semi-final and Andrey Golubev for the loss of two games in the final. He thus became the first British player to win two Master tournaments and the first Briton to win five tournaments in a year.[82] Heading into the final Masters event of the season, Murray was on course for a record third consecutive Masters shield.[83] Murray defeated Sam Querrey and Verdasco, before David Nalbandian ended Murray's run, of 14 straight wins, when he beat him in straight sets. This was Murray's first defeat on the ATP tour in three months, since Nadal beat him in Canada.[84]
Now at No. 4 in the world, Murray qualified for the first time for the Masters Cup. He beat Roddick in three sets, before the American withdrew from the competition. This was followed by a win over Simon to qualify for the semi-finals.[85] In his final group match against Federer, Murray defeated him in three sets.[86][87] In the semi-final Murray faced Davydenko, but after leaving it all on the court against Federer, Murray succumbed to the Russian in straight sets.[88]
Murray ended 2008 ranked fourth in the world.
Murray began 2009 by beating Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to win the exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi. He followed this with a successful defence of his title at the Qatar Open in Doha, defeating Andy Roddick in straight sets to win the final.[89] At the Australian Open, Murray made it to the fourth round, losing to Fernando Verdasco in the fourth round.[90] After the loss to Verdasco, Murray was delayed from going home, as he was found to be suffering from a virus.
Murray got back to winnning ways quickly though as he won his eleventh career title in Rotterdam. In the final, Murray faced the world no. 1, Nadal, defeating him in the third set.[91] However, an injury, sustained in the semifinal forced his withdrawal from the Marseille Open, which he had won in 2008.[92] Returning from injury, Murray went to Dubai and withdrew before the quarterfinals with a re-occurrence of the virus that had affected him at the Australian Open.[93] The virus caused Murray to miss a Davis Cup tie in Glasgow. Returning from the virus, Murray made it to the final at Indian Wells. Murray defeated Federer in the semifinal but lost the final against Nadal, winning just three games in windy conditions.[94] However a week later and Murray made another final in Miami and defeated Novak Djokovic for another masters title.
Murray got his clay season underway at the Monte Carlo Masters. With a series of impressive performances, Murray made it to the semifinals losing in straight sets to Nadal. Murray then moved to the Rome Masters, where he lost in the second round, after a first-round bye, to Juan Mónaco in three sets. Despite an early exit of the Rome Masters Murray achieved the highest ever ranking of a British male in the open era when he became world no. 3 on 11 May 2009.[95] Murray celebrated this achievement by trying to defend his Madrid Masters title, which had switched surfaces from hard to clay. He reached the quarterfinals, after beating Simone Bolelli and Robredo in straight sets, before losing to Del Potro. Murray reached the quarterfinals of the 2009 French Open, but was defeated by Fernando González in four sets.
Murray won at Queen's, without dropping a set, becoming the first British winner of the tournament since 1938. In the final Murray defeated American James Blake. This was Murray's first tournament win on grass and his first ATP title in Britain.[96] Murray was initially seeded third at Wimbledon, but after the withdrawal of defending champion Nadal, Murray became the second-highest seeded player, after Federer and highest-ever seeded Briton in a senior event at Wimbledon.[97] Rain meant that Murray's fourth-round match against Stanislas Wawrinka was the first match to be played entirely under Wimbledon's retractable roof, also enabling it to be the latest finishing match ever at Wimbledon. Murray's win stretched to five sets and 3 hours 56 minutes, resulting in a 22:38 finish that was approximately an hour after play is usually concluded.[98] However Murray lost a tight semifinal to Andy Roddick, achieving his best result in the tournament to date.
Murray returned to action in Montreal, defeating del Potro in three sets to take the title.[99] After this victory, he overtook Nadal in the rankings and held the number two position until the start of the US Open.[100] Murray followed the Masters win playing at the Cincinnati Masters, where Federer beat him for the first time since the US Open in straight sets. At the US Open, Murray was hampered by a wrist injury and suffered a straight-sets loss to Čilić.[101] Murray competed in the Davis Cup tie in Liverpool against Poland. Murray won both his singles matches, but lost the doubles as Britain lost the tie and was relegated to the next group. During the weekend, Murray damaged his wrist further and was forced to miss six weeks of the tour, and with it dropped to no. 4 in the world.[102]
Murray returned to the tour in Valencia, where he won his sixth and final tournament of the year.[103] In the final Masters event of 2009, in Paris, Murray beat James Blake in three sets, before losing to Štěpánek in three. At the World Tour Finals in London, Murray started by beating del Potro in three sets, before losing a three-set match to Federer. He won his next match against Verdasco, but because Murray, Federer, and del Potro all ended up on equal wins and sets, it came down to game percentage, and Murray lost out by a game,[104] bringing an end to his 2009 season.
Murray and Laura Robson represented Britain at the Hopman Cup. The pair progressed to the final, where they were beaten by Spain.[105] At the Australian Open Murray progressed through his opening few matches in straight sets to set up a quarterfinal clash with the world no. 2 Rafael Nadal. Murray led by two sets and a break before the Spaniard had to retire with a torn quadriceps. Murray became the first British man to reach more than one Grand Slam final in 72 years when he defeated Marin Cilic.[106] Murray lost the final to world no. 1 Roger Federer in straight sets.[107]
At the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Murray reached the quarterfinals. He was defeated by Robin Söderling in straight sets. Murray next played at the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open, but lost his first match of the tournament, afterwards he said that his mind hadn't been fully on tennis.[108][109]
Switching attention to clay, Murray requested a wild card for Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters. He suffered another first match loss, this time to Philipp Kohlschreiber. He also entered the doubles competition with Ross Hutchins and defeated world no. 10 doubles team Cermak and Meritmak, before losing to the Bryan Brothers on a champions tie-breaker. Murray then went on to reach the third round in the Rome Masters 1000, where he lost to David Ferrer in straight sets. At the Madrid Masters, he reached the quarterfinals, where he subsequently lost to Ferrer again in a closely fought battle. Murray completed his preparations for the second Grand Slam of the year by defeating Fish in an exhibition match 11–9 in a champions tie-breaker.[110] At the French Open, Murray was drawn in the first round against Richard Gasquet. Murray battled back from two sets down to win in the final set.[111] In the third round, Murray lost a set 0–6 against Marcos Baghdatis, something he had not done since the French Open quarterfinals the previous year.[112] Murray lost in straight sets to Tomáš Berdych in the fourth round and credited his opponent for outplaying him.[113][114]
Murray's next appearance was at the grass courts of London. Attempting to become the first Briton since Gordon Lowe in 1914 to defend the title successfully,[115] Murray progressed to the third round, where he faced Mardy Fish. At 3–3 in the final set with momentum going Murray's way (Murray had just come back from 3–0 down), the match was called off for bad light, leaving Murray fuming at the umpire and tournament referee. Murray was quoted as saying he (Fish) only came off because it was 3–3.[116] Coming back the next day, Murray was edged out by the eventual finalist in a tie-breaker for his second defeat to him in the year.[117] In Murray's second-round match at Wimbledon, he defeated Jarkko Nieminen,[118] a match which was viewed by Queen Elizabeth II during her first visit to the Championships since 1977.[119] Murray lost to Rafael Nadal in the semifinals in straight sets.[120]
On 27 July 2010, Andy Murray and his coach Maclagan split, and Murray replaced him with Àlex Corretja just before he competed in the Farmers Classic as a wild-card replacement for Novak Djoković.[121] Murray stated that their views on his game differed wildly and that he didn't want to over-complicate things.[122] He thanked Maclagan for his 'positive contribution' and said that they have a great relationship. Jonathan Overend, the BBC's tennis journalist, reported that the split happened over Maclagan's annoyance at what he saw as Corretja's increasing involvement in Murray's coaching. But Murray had no intention of sacking him,[123] despite the press report that Murray was ready to replace him with Andre Agassi's former coach Darren Cahill.[124]
Starting the US hard-court season with the 2010 Farmers Classic, Murray reached the final. During Murray's semifinal win against Feliciano López,[125] whilst commentating for ESPN, Cahill appeared to rule himself out of becoming Murray's next coach.[126] In Murray's first final since the Australian Open, he lost against Sam Querrey in three sets This was his first loss to Querrey in five career meetings and the first time he had lost a set against the American.[127] In Canada, Murray successfully defended a Masters title for the first time. He became the first player since Andre Agassi in 1995 to defend the Canadian Masters. Murray also became the fifth player to defeat Rafael Nadal (the fifth occasion that Murray has beaten the player ranked world no. 1) and Roger Federer (Murray had achieved this previously at the unofficial 2009 Capitala World Tennis Championship exhibition) in the same tournament. Murray defeated Nadal and Federer in straight sets. This ended his title drought dating back to November 2009.[128][129] At the Cincinnati Masters, Murray complained about the speed of the court after his first match.[130] Before his quarterfinal match with Fish, Murray complained that the organisers refused to put the match on later in the day. Murray had played his two previous matches at midday, and all his matches in Toronto between 12 and 3 pm.[131]
I don't ever request really when to play. I don't make many demands at all during the tournaments." "I'm not sure, the way the tennis works, I don't think matches should be scheduled around the doubles because it's the singles that's on the TV."
The reason given for turning down Murray's request was that Fish was playing doubles. Murray had no option but to play at midday again, with temperatures reaching 33°C in the shade. Murray won the first set on a tie-breaker, but after going inside for a toilet break, he began to feel ill. The doctor was called on court to actively cool Murray down. Murray admitted after the match that he had considered retiring. He lost the second set, but forced a final-set tie-breaker, before Fish won.[132] At the US Open, Murray played Stanislas Wawrinka in the third round. Murray bowed out of the tournament, losing in four sets.[133] However, questions about Murray's conditioning arose, as he called the trainer out twice during the match.[134]
His next event was the China Open in Beijing, where Murray reached the quarterfinals, losing to Ivan Ljubičić.[135] At the Shanghai Rolex Masters, Murray reached his seventh Masters Series final.[136] There, he faced Roger Federer and dismissed the Swiss player in straight sets.[137] He did not drop a single set throughout the event, taking only his second title of the year and his sixth ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title. Murray returned to Spain to defend his title at the Valencia Open 500 but lost in the second round to Juan Mónaco.[138] However in doubles, Murray partnered his brother Jamie Murray to the final, where they defeated Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi. The victory was Murray's first doubles title and the second time he had reached a final with his brother.[139][140] Murray reached the quarter finals at the BNP Paribas Masters losing to Gaël Monfils in three sets.[141] Combined with his exit and Söderling's taking the title, Murray found himself pushed down a spot in the rankings, down to no. 5 from no. 4.[142] At the Tour finals in London, Murray opened with a straight-sets victory over Söderling.[143] In Murray's second round-robin match, he faced Federer, whom he had beaten in their last two meetings. On this occasion, however, Murray suffered a straight-sets defeat.[144] Murray then faced David Ferrer in his last group match. Murray lost the first two games, but came back to take six in a row to win the set 6–2 and to qualify for the semifinals. Murray closed out the match with a 6–2 second set to finish the group stage with a win,[145] before facing Nadal in the semifinal. They battled for over three hours, before Murray fell to the Spaniard in a final-set tie-breaker, bringing an end to his season.[146]
Murray started 2011 by playing alongside fellow Brit Laura Robson in the 2011 Hopman Cup. They did not make it past the round-robin stage, losing all three ties against Italy, France, and the USA. Despite losing all three ties, Murray won all of his singles matches. He beat Potito Starace, Nicolas Mahut, and John Isner . Murray, along with other stars such as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djoković, participated in the Rally for Relief event to help raise money for the flood victims in Queensland.[147]
Seeded fifth in the Australian Open, Murray met former champion Novak Djoković in the final and was defeated in straight sets. Murray made a quick return, participating at Rotterdam. He was defeated by Marcos Baghdatis in the first round.[148] Murray reached the semifinals of the doubles tournament with his brother Jamie. Murray lost in the first round at the Masters Series events at Indian Wells and Miami. Murray lost to American qualifiers Donald Young and Alex Bogomolov Jr. respectivly. After Miami, Murray split with Àlex Corretja, who was his coach at the time.[149]
Murray made a return to form at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, where he faced Nadal in the semifinals. Murray sustained an elbow injury before the match but put up a battle losing to the Spaniard after nearly three hours.[150] Murray subsequently withdrew from the 2011 Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell due to the injury.[151] Murray played at the Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open, where he was then beaten in the third round by Thomaz Bellucci.[152] After Madrid, Murray proceeded to the Rome Masters where he lost in the semifinals against Novak Djoković.[citation needed] At the 2011 French Open, Murray twisted his ankle during his third round match with Berrer and looked like he may have to withdraw but limped round to with the match.[153] However Murray carried on and battled back from two sets down against Troicki in the fourth round. A ball boy inadvertantly interfered with play at a start of a game and eventually found Murray found himself broken and 5–2 down before recovering to win the set.[154] Murray lost in the his first semifinal at Roland Garros, against Rafael Nadal.[155]
Murray defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, to win his second Queen's Club title..[156] At Wimbledon, Murray lost in the semifinal to Nadal, despite taking the first set.[157] At the Davis Cup tie between Great Britain and Luxembourg, Murray lead the British team to victory.[158]
Murray was the two-time defending 2011 Rogers Cup champion, but lost his first match in the second round, to South African Kevin Anderson.[159] However, the following week, he won the 2011 Western & Southern Open, beating Novak Djoković, 6–4, 3–0 (ret), after Djokovic retired due to injury.[citation needed] At the 2011 US Open, Murray defeated Somdev Devvarman in straights sets in the first round, and battled from two sets down to win a five set encounter 6–7, 2–6, 6–2, 6–0, 6–4 with Robin Haase. He then defeated Feliciano López and Donald Young in straight sets in the third and fourth round. He then fought out a four set encounter with American giant John Isner 7–5, 6–4, 3–6, 7–6. He reached the semi-finals for a third time in a row this year, but again lost to Rafael Nadal in four sets 4–6, 2–6, 6–3, 2–6.
His next tournament was the Thailand Open, Murray went on to win the tournament defeating Donald Young 6–2, 6–0 in 48 minutes. He only dropped one set all tournament. The following week he won his third title in four tournaments by winning the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships. His opponent in the final was Rafael Nadal who he beat for the first time in the year by winning in three sets 3–6, 6–2, 6–0. Murray dropped only four points in the final set. He then completed his domination in Tokyo by winning the doubles partnering brother Jamie Murray defeating František Čermák and Filip Polášek 6–1, 6–4. This is his second doubles title and with this victory, he became the first person in the 2011 season to capture both singles and doubles titles at the same tournament. Murray then successfully defended his Shanghai Masters crown with a straight sets victory over David Ferrer in the final 7–5, 6–4.
The defence of the title meant he overtook Roger Federer in ranking points and moved up to no. 3 in the world. At the ATP World Tour Finals, Murray lost to David Ferrer in straight sets, 4–6, 5–7, and withdraw from the tournament after the loss with a groin pull. With the early loss and withdrawal from the tournament and with Roger Federer winning the title, Murray dropped one position back in the rankings to end the year as no. 4 in the world behind Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer.
Murray started the season once again ranked world no. 4 and appointed former world no. 1 Ivan Lendl as his new full-time coach.[160] He began the season by playing in the 2012 Brisbane International for the first time as the top seed in singles. He also played doubles with Marcos Baghdatis.[161] He overcame a slow start in his first two matches to win his 22nd title by beating Alexandr Dolgopolov, 6–1, 6–3 in the final.[162] In doubles, he lost in the quarterfinals against second seeds Jürgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner in a tight match which ended 6–3, 3–6, 13–15.[citation needed]
In the week prior to the Australian Open, Murray appeared in a one-off exhibition match against David Nalbandian at Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club, home of the unofficial AAMI Classic. Murray emerged victorious, defeating Nalbandian, 6–3, 7–6, after coming from a break down in the second set.[163] At the Australian Open, Murray started off with a 4-set win against Ryan Harrison. In the second round, he beat Édouard Roger-Vasselin in three sets, and in the third round, he beat Michaël Llodra, also in three sets, to proceed to the last sixteen.[164] Murray went on to beat Mikhail Kukushkin in the fourth round, 6–1, 6–1, 1–0 (ret), after his opponent retired due to the searing heat in Melbourne. Murray also beat Kei Nishikori in straight sets in the quarterfinals. Murray played a 4 hour and 50 minute semifinal match against Novak Djokovic, but was defeated, 3–6, 6–3, 7–6, 1–6, 5–7.[165]
At the Dubai Open, Murray defeated Novak Djokovic in the semifinals, 6–2, 7–5,[166] but lost in the final to Roger Federer, 5–7, 4–6.[167] At the 2012 BNP Paribas Open, Murray lost his opening second-round match to Spanish qualifier Guillermo García López, in straight sets, 4–6, 2–6. This was the second successive time that Murray had lost his opening match at the event.[168] Following Indian Wells, Murray made the finals of the Miami Masters, losing to Novak Djokovic, 1–6, 6–7.[169]
In Rome, he was eliminated in the third round by Richard Gasquet, 7–6(1), 3–6, 2–6.
Outcome | Year | Championship | Surface | Opponent in the final | Score in the final |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Runner-up | 2008 | US Open | Hard | Roger Federer | 2–6, 5–7, 2–6 |
Runner-up | 2010 | Australian Open | Hard | Roger Federer | 3–6, 4–6, 6–7(11–13) |
Runner-up | 2011 | Australian Open (2) | Hard | Novak Djokovic | 4–6, 2–6, 3–6 |
W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Q# | A | P | Z# | PO | SF-B | F | NMS |
Won tournament, or reached Final, Semifinal, Quarterfinal, Round 4, 3, 2, 1, played in Round Robin or lost in Qualification Round 3, Round 2, Round 1, Absent from a tournament or Participated in a team event, played in a Davis Cup Zonal Group (with its number indication) or Play-off, won a bronze or silver match at the Olympics. The last is for a Masters Series/1000 tournament that was relegated (Not a Masters Series). This table is current through to the 2012 Australian Open.
Tournament | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | SR | W–L | Win % | ||||||||
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Grand Slam tournaments | |||||||||||||||||||
Australian Open | A | 1R | 4R | 1R | 4R | F | F | SF | 0 / 7 | 23–7 | 76.67 | ||||||||
French Open | A | 1R | A | 3R | QF | 4R | SF | 0 / 5 | 14–5 | 73.68 | |||||||||
Wimbledon | 3R | 4R | A | QF | SF | SF | SF | 0 / 6 | 24–6 | 80.00 | |||||||||
US Open | 2R | 4R | 3R | F | 4R | 3R | SF | 0 / 7 | 22–7 | 75.86 | |||||||||
Win–Loss | 3–2 | 6–4 | 5–2 | 12–4 | 15–4 | 16–4 | 21–4 | 5–1 | 0 / 25 | 83–25 | 76.85 |
Murray is best described as a defensive counter-puncher;[170] professional tennis coach Paul Annacone stated that Murray "may be the best counterpuncher on tour today."[171] His strengths include groundstrokes with low error rate, the ability to anticipate and react, and his transition from defence to offence with speed, which enables him to hit winners from defensive positions. His playing style has been likened to that of Miloslav Mečíř.[172] Murray's tactics usually involve passive exchanges from the baseline, usually waiting for an unforced error. However, Murray has been criticised for his generally passive style of play and lack of offensive weapons, prompting some to call him a pusher.[173] He is capable of injecting sudden pace to his groundstrokes to surprise his opponents who are used to the slow rally. Murray is also one of the top returners in the game, often able to block back fast serves with his excellent reach and uncanny ability to anticipate. For this reason, Murray is rarely aced.[174] Murray is also known for being one of the most intelligent tacticians on the court, often constructing points.[175][176] Murray is most proficient on a fast surface (such as hard courts),[177] although he has worked hard since 2008 on improving his clay court game.[178]
Early in his career, most of his main tour wins came on hard courts. However, he claimed to prefer clay courts,[179][180] because of his training in Barcelona as a junior player.[181]
Murray is sponsored by Head and plays the YOUTEK Radical Pro with a Prestige grommet. He wore Fred Perry apparel until early 2010, when he signed a five-year £10m contract with adidas. This includes wearing their range of tennis shoe.[182]
Murray identifies himself as Scottish and British.[183][184] Prior to Wimbledon 2006, Murray caused some public debate when he was quoted as saying he would "support anyone but England" at the 2006 World Cup.[185] He received large amounts of hate mail on his website as a result.[186] It was also reported that Murray had worn a Paraguay shirt on the day of England's World Cup match with the South American team.[185]
Murray explained that his comments were said in jest during a light-hearted interview with sports columnist Maurice Russo,[187] who asked him if he would be supporting Scotland in the World Cup, in the knowledge that Scotland had failed to qualify for the tournament.[188] Sports journalist Des Kelly wrote that another tabloid had later "lifted a couple of [the comments] into a 'story' that took on a life of its own and from there the truth was lost" and that he despaired over the "nonsensical criticism".[189]
Murray protested that he is "not anti-English and never was"[183] and he expressed disappointment over England's subsequent elimination by Portugal.[190] In an interview with Nicky Campbell on BBC Radio 5 Live, Tim Henman confirmed that the remarks had been made in jest and were only in response to Murray being teased by Kelly[187] and Henman.[191] He also stated that the rumour that Murray had worn a Paraguay shirt was untrue.[191]
In an interview with Gabby Logan for the BBC's Inside Sport programme, Murray said that he was both Scottish and British and was comfortable and happy with his British identity.[192] He said he saw no conflict between the two and was equally proud of them. He has also pointed out that he is quarter English with some of his family originating from Newcastle, and that his girlfriend, Kim Sears, is English.[193]
In 2006 Murray caused an uproar during a match between him and Kenneth Carlsen. Murray was first given a warning for racket abuse then he stated that he and Carlsen had "played like women" during the first set.[194] Murray was heavily booed for the remainder of the interview, but explained later that the comment was in jest to what Svetlana Kuznetsova had said at the Hopman Cup.[195] A few months later Murray was fined $2,500 for swearing at the umpire during a Davis Cup doubles rubber with Serbia and Montenegro. Murray refused to shake hands with the umpire at the end of the match.[196]
In 2007 Murray suggested that tennis had a match fixing problem, stating that everyone knows it goes on,[197] in the wake of the investigation surrounding Nikolay Davydenko.[198] Both Davydenko and Rafael Nadal questioned his comments, but Murray responded that his words had been taken out of context.[199]
In 2008, Murray withdrew from a Davis Cup tie, leading his brother to question his heart for the competition.[200][dead link]
See more Wikipedia articles related to this topic. |
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Sporting positions | ||
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Preceded by Sam Querrey |
US Open Series Champion 2010 |
Succeeded by Mardy Fish |
Awards
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Preceded by Kate Haywood |
BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year 2004 |
Succeeded by Harry Aikines-Aryeetey |
Persondata | |
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Name | Murray, Andy |
Alternative names | Murray, Andrew |
Short description | Tennis player |
Date of birth | 15 May 1987 |
Place of birth | Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom |
Date of death | |
Place of death |
Mark Cavendish at the 2011 UCI Road World Championships |
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Full name | Mark Simon Cavendish | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nickname | Manx Missile[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | (1985-05-21) 21 May 1985 (age 27)[2] Douglas, Isle of Man |
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Height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 69 kg (150 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Current team | Team Sky | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Discipline | Road and Track | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Role | Rider | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rider type | Sprinter | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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2004 | Team Persil | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Professional team(s) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2005–2006 2006–2011 2012– |
Team Sparkasse T-Mobile Team Team Sky |
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Infobox last updated on 14 May 2012 |
Mark Cavendish MBE (born 21 May 1985) is a Manx professional road racing cyclist who rides for UCI ProTeam Team Sky. He rode for HTC-Highroad prior to its disbandment at the end of the 2011 season. Originally a track cyclist specialising in the madison, points race, and scratch race disciplines, he has competed on the road since 2006, rising to prominence as a sprinter. He is the 2011 Road World Champion and winner of the 2011 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award.
On the track Cavendish won gold in the madison at the 2005 and 2008 World Championshps, with Rob Hayles and Bradley Wiggins respectively and in the scratch race at the 2006 Commonwealth Games riding for Isle of Man.
As a road cyclist he achieved eleven wins in his first professional season, equalling the record held by Alessandro Petacchi. Cavendish has won a total 20 Tour de France stages putting him joint 6th on the all-time list with Nicolas Frantz and 10th on the all-time list of Grand Tour stage winners with 33 victories. Other notable wins include the 2009 Milan – San Remo classic and the points classification in both the 2010 Vuelta a España and the 2011 Tour de France.
Contents |
Cavendish was born in Douglas, Isle of Man, the son of David Cavendish also from the Isle of Man, and Adele from Yorkshire.[3] He began riding BMX at a young age, racing at the National Sports Centre in Douglas. He said: "I was always riding a bike, getting dropped in little races." Cavendish started racing informally at 12, as a mountain-bike rider.[4] My mum would laugh at me, and I said it was because all my mates had mountain bikes, so I asked for a mountain bike for my 13th birthday and got one. The very next day I went out and beat everyone."[4] It was at that time that Cavendish met David Millar at a race on the Isle of Man. Cavendish said he was inspired by Millar. Cavendish worked in a bank for two years after leaving school. He concentrated on earning enough money to support himself as a full-time cyclist later on, as he attempted to turn professional.[2]
Mark Cavendish began his career with the British Track Cycling team. He won gold in the madison with Rob Hayles at the 2005 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Los Angeles. They had not raced together before. They finished one lap ahead of the field to claim the gold medal, ahead of the Dutch and Belgian teams, giving Britain its fourth gold at the championships. It was Cavendish's first world champion's jersey.[5] Cavendish also won the 2005 European championship points race. He began road racing in 2005, riding the Tour of Berlin and 2005 Tour of Britain as a trialist with Team Sparkasse.
Cavendish began 2006 with the Continental team, Team Sparkasse, a feeder squad for T-Mobile Team. In June, he won two stages and the points and sprint competitions in the Tour of Berlin.[6] He rode for the Isle of Man on the track at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, riding the scratch race. He lapped the field with three others: Rob Hayles; Ashley Hutchinson of Australia; and James McCallum of Scotland. He then beat these in the sprint to win gold for the Isle of Man. The race time was 23m 5s, an average 51.9 km/h.[7][8]
His success at the Tour of Berlin led to a post as a stagiaire with T-Mobile Team from August until the end of the season.[9] His best result for T-Mobile in 2006 was in the Tour of Britain where he came second three times and won the points classification. It brought a full professional contract for 2007 and 2008.[10]
“ | I'm an old-school sprinter. I can't climb a mountain but if I am in front with 200 metres to go then there's nobody who can beat me. | ” |
—Mark Cavendish, at the 2007 Eneco Tour[11] |
Cavendish's breakthrough came at the 2007 Grote Scheldeprijs race in Belgium, which he won overall.[12] He went on to win stages at the Four Days of Dunkirk[13][14] and the 2007 Volta a Catalunya[15][16] and that brought selection for the 2007 Tour de France. He crashed in stages 1 and 2.[17][18] and abandoned on stage 8 as the race reached the Alps, having taken two top-ten placings but unhappy not to have had a top-five placing.[19] His debut season continued moving on to 10 stage wins, one behind Alessandro Petacchi's record 11 for a début season.[20] Cavendish took his 11th win in early October—the Circuit Franco-Belge—to equal Petacchi's record.[21] Among the wins were three in UCI ProTour events, the two in the Volta a Catalunya and one in the 2007 Eneco Tour.[22]
In 2008, Cavendish returned to the track, winning the Madison 2008 Track World Championships in Manchester with Bradley Wiggins, as Great Britain topped the medal table.[23][24]
On the road, Cavendish won his first stages of a grand tour, by picking two victories in the 2008 Giro d'Italia.[25] Cavendish won four further stages in the 2008 Tour de France, his first coming in stage 5[26] from Cholet to Châteauroux.[27] He won again on stage 8,[28] stage 12[29] and stage 13,[30] making him the first British rider to collect four stages in a single Tour.[31] Overnight, at the age of just 22, he became the fourth most successful British professional in history.[32] After stage 14, Cavendish abandoned the Tour to concentrate on the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.[33] He and Team Columbia manager[34] Bob Stapleton agreed that riding the Alps was a risk to his hopes.[35] But Cavendish, with Bradley Wiggins, failed to win a medal, finishing joint eighth in the madison. He was the only British track cyclist not to win a medal.[36] Cavendish was left frustrated and the friends did not speak for months.[37] Following the Olympics, Cavendish remained angry with British Cycling for giving insufficient attention to the madison, though Chris Boardman stated that Cavendish's professional commitments also interfered with his build up to the Olympics. In November, Cavendish revealed that he had no further plans to return to track cycling.[38]
The rest of his season was successful, with a total of eleven further race wins, including three each at the 2008 Tour of Ireland[39][40][41] which he abandoned on the final day, and the 2008 Tour of Missouri,[42][43][44] winning his only points classification of the season at the latter. At the 2008 Tour de Romandie, Cavendish won the prologue time-trial, beating compatriot Bradley Wiggins and emphasising his short-distance time-trial abilities.[45]
Cavendish's 2009 season began at the 2009 Tour of Qatar, where he renewed his rivalry with Tom Boonen.[46] Boonen won the race and one stage, though Cavendish took two stages; he also won two stages at the 2009 Tour of California, again beating Boonen in the sprint finishes.[47] The Tour of California also saw Cavendish win his first points of classification of the 2009 season.[48] Cavendish was a surprise inclusion in the British squad for the 2009 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, where he competed in the scratch race and the madison, failing to pick-up medals in either.[49] He took up the European season at Tirreno–Adriatico, the Italian one-week stage race, where he won one stage.[50] He then entered his first classic race, 2009 Milan – San Remo, and, after a week of uncharacteristically humble pre-race statements, rode effectively over the climbs that his rivals had said made this race impossible for him to win – and then tracked down Heinrich Haussler in the last 200 meters to narrowly win the sprint and the race, Cavendish's first victory in a race known as one of the five monuments of cycling.[51]
Cavendish repeated his two-stage victory at the Three Days of De Panne from 2008, also winning the points classification.[52] At the start of the 2009 Giro d'Italia Team Columbia-High Road won the Team Time Trial and he was given the Maglia Rosa leaders jersey, becoming the first British rider to ever wear it.[53] The first 2 road stages however were fruitless for Cavendish, who was beaten to the line by Alessandro Petacchi in the first stage and was caught behind a crash and failed to make it back for the sprint the next day. Cavendish soon asserted his sprinting dominance on the race however, gaining 3 stage wins before abandoning following stage 13, citing a need to rest for beginning preparations for the Tour de France. He continued his preparation by racing the 2009 Tour de Suisse where he won stage 3[54] and stage 6.[55][56]
During the season, Cavendish developed a remarkable partnership with his leadout man, Mark Renshaw. Continuing his run of success, Cavendish won stage 2,[57] stage 3,[58] stage 10,[59] stage 11,[60] stage 19[61] and stage 21[62] of the 2009 Tour de France. In winning the third stage he became the first Briton to hold the green jersey for two days in a row.[63] Cavendish's win on stage 11 enabled him to reclaim the green jersey from rival Thor Hushovd, and equalled Barry Hoban's British record of eight stage wins.[64] Winning stage 19, Cavendish set a new record for Tour de France stage wins by a British rider.[65] In winning the last stage, he led home a remarkable 1–2 for his team, when his team mate and leadout man, Mark Renshaw, finished second on the Champs-Élysées.[62]
Following on from the Tour de France, Cavendish won the Sparkassen Giro Bochum and took part in the 2009 Tour of Ireland, winning stage two.[66] On 7 September he recorded the 50th win of his road racing career in a sprint finish in the opening stage of the 2009 Tour of Missouri.[67] Before the race he confirmed he will remain with Team Columbia-HTC in 2010, ending speculation linking him with a move to newly created British team, Team Sky.[67] Cavendish retained the leader's jersey by sprinting to victory on stage two but finished 5th on stage 3, losing the overall lead to Thor Hushovd,[68] and was forced to withdraw from the race before stage four due to a lung infection.[69] Although selected for the British team for the Men's Road Race at the 2009 UCI Road World Championships, his illness prevented him from taking part.[70]
Following a dental problem, Cavendish delayed the start of his 2010 season until the 2010 Ruta del Sol, in mid-February.[71] Following the lay off his form was poor, and he failed to defend his victory at the 2010 Milan – San Remo, coming in six minutes down in 89th place.[72] Cavendish's pre-season goals were to win the green jersey in the Tour de France and win the Road Race at the 2010 World Championships.[73] Cavendish also said that he would race in the 2010 Tour of Flanders but said he wouldn't win it, stating that the Tour of Flanders requires training, but he sees himself winning it in the future.[74]
Following a poor start to the season, Cavendish found form at the 2010 Volta a Catalunya, finishing seventh in the time-trial and winning stage 2.[75] His team withdrew Cavendish from the 2010 Tour de Romandie after he made an offensive gesture after winning the second stage.[76][77] Missing the 2010 Giro d'Italia, Cavendish instead chose to compete at the 2010 Tour of California starting on 16 May, where he won stage 1, for only his third victory of the season.[78] On 15 June Cavendish crashed heavily whilst sprinting in the closing metres of the stage 4 of the 2010 Tour de Suisse, appearing to veer off line and bring down Heinrich Haussler and several other riders, raising criticism from other teams regarding his riding style.[79] Cavendish entered the 2010 Tour de France. During stage 1, Cavendish crashed out of the final sprint, with just under 3 km (1.9 mi) remaining in the stage. Overhead camera footage showed Cavendish failing to negotiate a corner after entering too fast and turning too late. He then leaned his shoulder into a fellow rider as he travelled away from the apex.[80][81][82] Cavendish returned to form by winning the stage 5,[83] stage 6,[84] stage 11,[85] stage 18[86] and stage 20,[87] bringing his career total to 15 stage wins.[88] He ended up second in the points classification, 11 points behind Alessandro Petacchi.[89] Cavendish's next race was the 2010 Vuelta a España, in which his team won the team time trial with Cavendish crossing the line first taking the leader's jersey.[90] He could only place second or third on the subsequent sprint stages, but returned to form later in the race winning stage 12,[91] stage 13,[92] stage 18[93] and the points classification.[94]
Cavendish had a slow start to 2011 failing to win a race until late February when he won the stage 6 of the 2011 Tour of Oman.[95] He continued to race and came to his second victory of the season in the 2011 Grote Scheldeprijs. His third win of the Grote Scheldeprijs, following his previous triumphs in 2007 and 2008, brought him to the record tied with Piet Oellibrandt.[96] At the 2011 Paris–Roubaix he failed to finish.[97] He came second in the second stage of the 2011 Giro d'Italia in contentious circumstances (Cavendish gestured at winner Alessandro Petacchi for appearing to move across his path in the final sprint), to take the pink jersey into stage 3. Cavendish got his first grand tour victory of the year by winning stage 10 of the Giro, shrugging off claims that he had illegally held on to his team car when climbing Mount Etna on stage 9.[98] He won his second Giro victory of 2011 on stage 12 before leaving the race.[99] On 11 June it was announced that Mark Cavendish was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours.[100][101]
Cavendish won stage 5,[102] stage 7,[103] stage 11,[104] stage 15[105] and stage 21 of the 2011 Tour de France—bringing his total to 20 career Tour de France stage wins,[106][107] and the first person ever to win the final stage three years in succession. Even though he was docked 20 points for finishing outside the time limit after stage 18[108] and again after stage 19.[109] Cavendish went on to win the points classification; in doing so, he became the first British cyclist to ever win the maillot vert.[110][111] Over the following weeks Cavendish took part in the post-Tour Criteriums. He won the Stiphout Criterium in The Netherlands, beating Andy Schleck and Frank Schleck to the line,[112] then he won the Profcriterium Wolvertem-Meise[113] and following that he won the Wateringse Wielerdag.[114] On 4 August Cavendish's team HTC-Highroad announced that they would fold at the end of the season,[115] fuelling speculation of Cavendish moving to Team Sky.[116] On 14 August, Cavendish won the London–Surrey Cycle Classic; racing for Team Great Britain, it was the official test event for the 2012 Summer Olympics road race and part of the London Prepares series.[117] Less than a week later, Cavendish started the 2011 Vuelta a España, but abandoned during stage 4 due to the searing heat.[118] After withdrawing from the Vuelta Cavendish was allowed to be a late addition for the line up of the 2011 Tour of Britain.[119] Cavendish won stage 1 in Dumfries to take the leader's jersey at that point in the race,[120] and the final stage in London.[121]
At the end of September Cavendish went to the 2011 UCI Road World Championships in Copenhagen taking part in the road race with an eight-strong British team. After the team controlled the whole race it came down to a sprint finish with Cavendish crossing the line in first place taking the Rainbow jersey. He became the second British World Champion after Tom Simpson in 1965.[122][123] After much speculation, it was announced Cavendish would join Team Sky for the 2012 season.[124] He will be joined by his HTC-Highroad teammate Austrian Bernhard Eisel.[125]
In November Cavendish made a cameo return to the track, competing in the Revolution event at the Manchester Velodrome. He won the scratch race, his first win on the track of any kind since 2008.[126] He announced that he was starting his training for the 2012 season earlier than in previous years, with the aim of being more competitive in the Classics.[127] Cavendish won the 2011 Most Inspirational Sportsman of the Year Award at the Jaguar Academy of Sport Annual Awards at The Savoy Hotel on 27 November.[128] In December Cavendish became the winner of the 2011 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award with 169,152 (49.47%) of the votes cast.[129]
Cavendish began his 2012 season at the 2012 Tour of Qatar, where after struggling with illness, he won stage 3 to take his first victory for Team Sky.[130] He also won stage 5 later in the week, moving back into the top ten of the overall classification.[131] He finished the race in sixth place, despite crashing on the final stage.[132] Although he did not win any stages at the 2012 Tour of Oman, having suffered an injury in the first stage, he returned to win the 2012 Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne.[133] Cavendish targeted a second victory in 2012 Milan – San Remo in March, but was dropped on Le Manie, 100 km (62 mi) from the finish.[134] He did not manage to finish high up in any of the other 2012 classics. In the 2012 Tour de Romandie, Cavendish showed his ability in short time trials by finishing third in the prologue, but did not take any stage wins. A week later Cavendish took his season victories to 5 by winning the sprint on stage 2 of the 2012 Giro d'Italia. The following day, he was again in contention for victory on stage 3, but in the sprint Roberto Ferrari aggressively switched lanes, clipping Cavendish and sending the him to the ground and causing the whole field to stack up behind. Among other riders to fall was overall leader Taylor Phinney. Cavendish later tweeted that Ferrari should be "ashamed to take out Pink, Red & World Champ jerseys".[135] He recovered from minor injuries to win stage 5[136] and stage 13.[137] Cavendish completed the Giro, but lost the points classification to Joaquim Rodríguez by a single point. He did win the minor Azzurri d'Italia and stage combativeness classifications. [138]
Cavendish has been compared to an athletics sprinter pushing on the starting blocks.[139] At the 2009 Tour de France the points that he gained in the intermediate sprint in stage 14 were removed after he was judged to have driven Thor Hushovd too close to barriers on the course.[140] After stage 19 he said that he was "embarrassed" for his comments about "deserving" green jersey wearer Hushovd.[65] After stage four of the 2010 Tour of Switzerland, Cavendish was found to be at fault for a crash involving himself and Heinrich Haussler during the end of stage sprint.[141] The crash caused Haussler, Arnaud Coyot and Lloyd Mondory to quit the race because of their injuries, though Cavendish was able to continue.[142] Cavendish received a thirty second penalty and a CHF200 fine. The start of the next stage was disrupted by fellow riders protesting at Cavendish's riding and style, and what they claimed was a lack of respect from Cavendish.[142]
Cavendish has been described as confident, even arrogant. In 2008 he said:
“ | When journalists at the Tour de France ask me if I am the best sprinter, I answer Yes, and that's seen as arrogance, but if they don't ask me, I don't say I'm the best sprinter in the world.[139] | ” |
In June 2009 his autobiography, Boy Racer, which covered his career to date, was published.[3] At a press conference in London ahead of the 2009 Tour de France, Cavendish explained that the book was "more a biography of last year's Tour stage wins" than an autobiography.[143] His "biggest motivation for writing it had been to explain himself better", to counter the way he came across during interviews immediately after races.[143]
He lives on the Isle of Man and has a training base in Quarrata, Tuscany, Italy.[144][145] Cavendish is in a relationship with former glamour model and Page Three girl Peta Todd.[146][146][147] On 3 April 2012, Cavendish announced the birth of their daughter, Delilah Grace Cavendish.[148]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mark Cavendish |
Wikinews has related news: Contador wins 2009 Tour de France; Cavendish wins six stages |
Sporting positions | ||
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Preceded by Fabian Cancellara |
Winner of Milan – San Remo 2009 |
Succeeded by Óscar Freire |
Awards and achievements | ||
Preceded by Tony McCoy |
BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2011 |
Succeeded by Vacant |
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Persondata | |
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Name | Cavendish, Mark |
Alternative names | |
Short description | Racing cyclist |
Date of birth | 1985-05-21 |
Place of birth | Isle of Man |
Date of death | |
Place of death |
Bradley Wiggins in 2011 |
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Full name | Bradley Marc Wiggins | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nickname | Wiggo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | (1980-04-28) 28 April 1980 (age 32) Ghent, Belgium |
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Height | 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 69 kg (150 lb; 10.9 st) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Current team | Team Sky | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Discipline | Road & Track | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Role | Rider | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rider type | GC Contender (Road) and Pursuitist (Track) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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2001 2002–2003 2004–2005 2006–2007 2008 2009 2010– |
Linda McCartney Racing Team Française des Jeux Crédit Agricole Cofidis Team High Road Garmin-Slipstream Team Sky |
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Infobox last updated on 29 April 2012 |
Bradley Marc Wiggins, CBE (born 28 April 1980) is a British professional track and road bicycle racer, currently riding for Team Sky. Wiggins' career began on the track, where he specialised in the pursuit and madison disciplines.
He won a bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics, three further medals at the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics, and two golds at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics. In road cycling he turned professional in 2002, but his involvement was limited by his track cycling until 2007.
After the 2008 Olympics Wiggins took a break from the track to focus on the road. Initially viewed as a time-trial specialist and a rouleur, Wiggins showed his ability in stage races when he came in fourth at the 2009 Tour de France, the joint highest placed finish by a British rider in Tour history. In 2010 he was hired as the leader for the new Team Sky, and later that year was inducted in to the London Youth Games Hall of Fame. To date his biggest wins have been the 2011 Critérium du Dauphiné – the first British rider to win the race since 1990 – and the 2012 Paris–Nice, the first British winner of the race in 45 years. Wiggins finished 3rd in the 2011 Vuelta a España, becoming one of three British riders to make the podium in a Grand Tour. Ten days later, Wiggins won the silver medal in the Time Trial at the World Road Cycling Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark. Wiggins was part of the Great Britain team that helped Mark Cavendish win the 2011 UCI World Road Race Championship.
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The son of a professional cyclist, Gary Wiggins, Bradley Wiggins was born in Ghent, Belgium and spent his childhood in London with his mother Linda, stepfather Brendon and younger brother, Ryan. He started racing at south London's Herne Hill Velodrome aged 12, and represented Camden in the London Youth Games as a youngster. In 2010 he was inducted in to the London Youth Games Hall of Fame.[2] [3] He lives in Eccleston, Lancashire. He married his wife Catherine in Manchester in November 2004 and has two children, Ben and Isabella.[4] Wiggins is a well-known mod,[5][6] and owns a collection of classic scooters and guitars from the 1960s and 1970s.[7] In April 2012 it was announced Wiggins would collaborate with Fred Perry "to develop an authentic, non technical range of off cycle wear".[8]
At 20, Wiggins won a bronze medal for Britain in the team pursuit at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.
In 2001 he signed for the British professional road Linda McCartney Racing Team before it disbanded in early 2001.[9] He joined Française des Jeux in 2002, before moving to Crédit Agricole in 2004.
At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Wiggins became the first British athlete in 40 years to win three medals at one Games, the last being Mary Rand at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo. He won the gold in the pursuit, silver in the team pursuit, and bronze in the madison with his race partner Rob Hayles. Wiggins was appointed OBE in the 2005 New Year Honours for services to sport.[9]
In 2005, Wiggins rode Giro d'Italia for Crédit Agricole. He moved to Cofidis in 2006, and rode that year's Tour de France. He returned to the track for the Manchester round of the UCI World Cup and the world championships in 2007, winning the individual and team pursuit. He followed on the road by winning the prologue of the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré.
He raced for Cofidis in the 2007 Tour de France and finished fourth in the prologue in London. He won the combativity award on stage six for a long solo breakaway. Cofidis withdrew after Cristian Moreni failed a doping test.[10]
In 2008 he signed with Team High Road, a team later known as HTC-Highroad. At the 2008 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Manchester, he won three gold medals: pursuit, team pursuit and madison.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics he again won the pursuit, the first rider to successfully defend a pursuit title at the Olympics. On 17 August, he was a member of the Olympic pursuit team which broke the world record in the heats with 3:55:202, beating Russia to the ride-off for silver and gold.[11] The following day, the team won the gold with a world record of 3:53:314, beating Denmark by 6.7s.[12] Wiggins paired up with Mark Cavendish in the madison and finished ninth.[13]
In October 2008 he published his autobiography, In Pursuit of Glory[14] and joined the Garmin-Slipstream team for the 2009 season.[15]
On 14 December 2008 Wiggins came ninth in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award with 5,633 votes.[16] On 31 December Wiggins was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours.[17]
After finishing the 2009 Giro d'Italia 71st, which included second place in the final stage, Wiggins arrived at the 2009 Tour de France having lost six kilos.[18][19] He came third in the opening time-trial in Monaco and helped Garmin to second place in the team time-trial despite losing four riders. In the first mountain finish, Wiggins finished 12th, and at 5th place overall entering the second week, had the highest second-week place by a British rider since Robert Millar. On the second mountain finish, in Verbier, Wiggins finished fifth to climb to third overall. He was attacked by the Schleck brothers on stage 17 and dropped to sixth, but moved to fourth in the stage 18 time-trial. On stage 20 to Mont Ventoux, Wiggins finished tenth and held fourth by three seconds ahead of Frank Schleck. He held that position in the final stage, equalling Robert Millar's highest ever finish by a British rider in the Tour.[20]
Wiggins won the British National Time Trial Championships in September 2009.[21]
In October 2009, he won the Herald Sun Tour after helping team-mates most of the race. He led after winning the stage five time-trial in Geelong by 14 seconds over team-mate Svein Tuft.
Wiggins had been contracted to ride for Garmin Slipstream in 2010, but following much speculation it was announced in December 2009 that he was to leave to join Team Sky, having signed a four year contract with the new British based team.[22]
Wiggins began 2010 as a team leader for the first time. He was part of the team who won the team time trial on stage one of the 2010 Tour of Qatar. On May 10, he took his first major win of the year, in the opening time trial[23] of the Giro d'Italia and took the maglia rosa leader's jersey. It was his first win at a Grand Tour. He lost the jersey on stage 2 to Cadel Evans following a crash-marred stage.[24] He lost further time early on in the Giro, but recovered much of it on stage 11, in which he finished fourth. He faded quickly towards the end of the race, however, losing a lot of time over the final stages to finish 40th.
Wiggins entered the 2010 Tour de France with high expectations following his 4th place the year before. His Tour got off to a disappointing start however, when he could only manage 77th place in the opening prologue, after an early starting position left him exposed to poor conditions.[25] Wiggins finished 8th on Stage 3, as cobblestones caught out a number of favourites.[26] However, in Stage 8 (the first mountain summit finish of the Tour), Wiggins could only manage 19th place, losing 1 minute 45 seconds to stage winner Andy Schleck.[27] Wiggins lost even more time the next day, on Stage 9, where he came 30th (losing 4 minutes 55 to the main contenders),[28] which effectively ended hopes of a top 10 finish. He finished the Tour in 24th place, 39 minutes 24 seconds behind winner Alberto Contador, and 7 places behind team-mate Thomas Löfkvist. Contador was later found guilty of doping and the title of 2010 Tour De France winner was passed to second placed Andy Schleck. [29]
Wiggins retained the British national time trial title at the National Championships.[30]
Wiggins was again team leader of Sky entering 2011. He opted against entering the 2011 Giro d'Italia, concentrating instead on shorter events and the classics, before undertaking altitude training to improve his climbing for the Tour de France.[31] Wiggins finished 3rd overall in Paris-Nice after finishing 2nd in Stage 6.[32] In March, he finished 2nd on the TT Stage 3 of the Critérium International. Wiggins won the ITT Stage 4 of Bayern-Rundfahrt, and finished the event in 14th place overall (and helping team-mate Geraint Thomas to win the event),[33] before heading off for altitude training in preparation for the Tour de France. He took the overall lead of the Critérium du Dauphiné after finishing 2nd on the ITT Stage 3.[34] On the final three mountain stages Wiggins was able to maintain his lead over second placed Cadel Evans (who would go on to win the Tour de France) to win Dauphiné, his biggest victory in road racing.[35] On 26 June, Wiggins won the British National Road Race Championships,[36] his final race before the Tour de France. On 8 July, he crashed out of the 2011 Tour de France on stage 7 with a broken collarbone.[37]
Following recovery from his injuries, it was confirmed by Team Sky that Wiggins would ride Vuelta a España for the first time,[38] as well as the World Time Trial Championships. Wiggins also confirmed he would ride the 2012 Tour de France, despite the London Olympics coming soon after, and the Vuelta/ Time Trial Championships was seen as a dress-rehearsal for 2012.[39]
Wiggins had a difficult start to the Vuelta as Sky finished 42 seconds back on the opening Team Time Trial in Benidorm.[40] However, a strong first week brought Wiggins back into contention, leaving him 19th overall after Stage 8.[41] On Stage 9, Wiggins and teammate Chris Froome attacked on the final climb to finish 4th and 5th respectively, and taking time out of Joaquim Rodríguez, Michele Scarponi and other contenders.[42] The stage moved both riders up in the standings, and Wiggins was expected to take the overall lead on the time trial the following day. However, Froome sprung a major surprise, finishing second on the stage, taking the red jersey for himself, whilst Wiggins rose to third overall.[43] Wiggins took the leaders jersey, after the rest day. After losing a few seconds to Vincenzo Nibali on the following days, Stage 14 saw Wiggins and Froome taking time out of most of their rivals, with Nibali losing over a minute.[44] Wiggins lost the lead of the Vuelta to Juan José Cobo on Stage 15, where he finished 5th on the climb up the Angliru.[45] The Stage saw Wiggins drop to 3rd in the standings, with Froome ahead in second. Wiggins finished the Vuelta in 3rd overall, his first grand tour podium.[46]
In September, Wiggins finished second behind Tony Martin in the UCI Road World Championship Time Trial to take the silver medal.[47] Four days later, Wiggins was part of the Great Britain team that set up Mark Cavendish's victory in the Road Race.[48]
Although 2012 is an Olympic year, Wiggins' focus remains on road racing. The individual pursuit is no longer an Olympic event, and in December 2011 coach Rod Ellingworth told The Guardian, "The chances of him doing the team pursuit are really slim now". [49] Wiggins is more likely to compete in the Olympic Road Race and Time Trial. Wiggins began his 2012 season with third place in the Volta ao Algarve, including victory in the race-concluding individual time trial, edging out world champion Tony Martin by less than a second.[50] Wiggins also helped with team-mate Richie Porte's successful bid to win the race overall. In March, Wiggins finished second to Vacansoleil-DCM's Gustav Larsson in the opening time trial of Paris–Nice, despite setting his time in wet conditions. The following day he took the lead of the race after being part of a 30-man breakaway as the peloton split into echelons. He held the lead for the rest of the race, winning the final stage, a time-trial on the Col d'Èze,[51] despite a strong challenge from Dutch rider Lieuwe Westra, of the Vacansoleil-DCM team. Starting the final 9.6 km (6.0 mi) stage with a 6-second lead, Wiggins beat Westra's time by two seconds, to win the race by eight seconds overall, becoming the first British rider to win the race since Tom Simpson in 1967.[52] His final stage victory was also good enough to give him the points classification ahead of Alejandro Valverde.[53]
On Stage 1 of the Tour de Romandie in April, Wiggins took a rare sprint victory from a group of 59 riders to take the race lead.[54] He lost the jersey to Luis León Sánchez after the Spaniard won two consecutive stages.[55] However, Wiggins won the final time trial, despite suffering a dropped chain, to take overall victory.[56] He is the first British rider to win the event.
Grand Tour | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Giro | 123 | - | - | 134 | 71 | 40 | - |
Tour | - | 124 | WD | - | 4 | 24 | WD |
Vuelta | - | - | - | - | - | - | 3 |
WD = withdrew
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bradley Wiggins |
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Persondata | |
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Name | Wiggins, Bradley |
Alternative names | Wiggins OBE, Bradley |
Short description | Racing cyclist |
Date of birth | 1980-04-28 |
Place of birth | Ghent, Belgium |
Date of death | |
Place of death |