Interesting and Unfortunate Story about Andrew Murray

[Deuce]

When I saw Andrew Murray at a Junior tournament a couple of years ago, he reminded me very much of a young Andy Roddick - not only his game, but also his uncontrollable emotions, and even his physical appearance.

Here's an interesting little story about a tragedy that occurred very close to him when he was only 8 years old.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/06/23/SPG69DDG541.DTL

 

[BreakPoint]

Man, I thought that kind of tragedy only happens in the U.S. with our easy access to guns. How did this guy even get the guns and all that ammo, anyway? I thought it was next to impossible to obtain firearms in the U.K. I mean, even the police there don't carry guns. I guess people there "go postal", too. Isn't it sad that it happens so often in the U.S. that we even have a name for it? Sorry to hear that happened to Murray.

 

[AndrewD]

The Dunblane massacre was an enormous story, so Im surprised it didn't find its way to the United States. Chillingly, the events were paralleled and surpassed (35 killed, 18 wounded) only 1 month later in Port Arthur, a small town in Tasmania, Australia in what was to be the world's largest 'spree' killing.

Break Point,
unfortunately no country is free from that kind of violence and, at the time, it was far easier to get your hands on that kind of an arsenal. However, as a result of Dunblane (for the UK) and Port Arthur (for Australia) the British government - eventually- banned all hand held weapons and the Australian government placed a ban on all semi-automatic weapons (and pistols as well). You can't stop someone if they're hell bent on that course of action but it should be made as hard as humanly possible.

 

[pound cat]

I remember the Dunblane incident. . Massacres happen in Canada too. 10 years ago a gunman went into a university in Montreal and randomly shot and klled 10 female Engineering students. He was ticked because he couldn't get into the engineering course. Gun laws don't prevent this kind of thing. Want a gun? Go on the street and buy one..any kind you want...real cheap.

 

[Morpheus]

You can't help but like a guy with this sort of wit:

"Obviously, he's much better than me," said Murray. "If I play my best, I've got a slight chance. But apart from that, no, I should lose pretty comfortably (laughter)."

 

[RafaN RichardG]

id rather go out with confidence, and then if i lose give them credit, cuz they had to go through me, than already assume defeat
but i like murray, seems to be a coll guy and a nice player

 

[West Coast Ace]

The Dunblane massacre was an enormous story, so Im surprised it didn't find its way to the United States. Chillingly, the events were paralleled and surpassed (35 killed, 18 wounded) only 1 month later in Port Arthur, a small town in Tasmania, Australia in what was to be the world's largest 'spree' killing.

Andrew, both of those mass killings were covered in the US - BreakPoint must not have been watching the news, watching some local yokel news - or just forgot.

What I get from this post is that Murray is yet another well off kid with behavioral problems. Which leads to one of the problems - here in the US - with tennis growth: it's still thought of as a sport for rich brats.

 

[NoBadMojo]

it is indeed thought of as an elitist sport unfortunately and prima donna whiney ass pros and pros wearing gold flecked shoes do nothing to dispel that image...
Blue, I dont think massacres like this do get much coverage here in the US unless there are Americans involved. For example in both Desert Storm conflicts, they would discuss American casualties and Iraqi casalties, but would make no mention of Canadians, Danes, Polish, etc who sent troops over there that perished. Very little is in the news over here about the horrible purgings in Africa..that's why i dont watch much news, or I watch CBC news or some other format that isnt as myopic and distorted, and is more realistic of the overall condition

 

[BreakPoint]

Andrew, both of those mass killings were covered in the US - BreakPoint must not have been watching the news, watching some local yokel news - or just forgot.

It's possible that I was traveling in Asia in March '96 as I was doing a lot of overseas business travel back then and didn't see the news. It might have not been reported where I was or I wasn't watching the news because I couldn't understand the language, depending on which country I was in at the time.

Or maybe NBMJ is right in that it wasn't extensively covered in the U.S.

 

[Fee]

It was extensively covered in the US, at least on CNN. I remember first hearing that story and nearly getting sick to my stomach. The coverage didn't last long, just like the attack in Russia a few years ago, but it was covered here.

 

[Feña14]

That was an awful time over here, being a similar age to Andy you knew something was wrong. For instance I remember them locking the classroom doors and seeing stuff on the tele that I was pretty scared to go to school.

I'm sure that it has had a n impact on him and made him what he is today. You always look for positives to come out of terrible things like this, maybe this is one of them.

 

[Max G.]

id rather go out with confidence, and then if i lose give them credit, cuz they had to go through me, than already assume defeat
but i like murray, seems to be a coll guy and a nice player

Well, he said that before his match with Stepanek... and he crushed stepanek in straight sets, he seemed confident enough when he's on court. He prefers to let his tennis do the talking, I can't argue with that.