Murray Tennis Bag Offers Inspiration

The Murray Bag 

On Monday Andy Murray beat Daniel Gimeno-Traver 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-0 to reach the second round.

What was noticeable on the day though was Murray's new look bag — the brainchild of his racket sponsor HEAD — which hopefully will be a source of inspiration in the future. It was not so much in his first match.

"I didn't today, but a lot of players in the past have done it with having notes in their bag, and some have had things written on like their rackets or something, on the back of their hand," Murray said. "Players have done those sort of things a lot in the past. And, yeah, something I could do if I felt like I needed it."

One of the messages read: "Believe in yourself and never give up." 

Another simply said: "Make history."

Another says: "Use your HEAD and be the best, be part of Wimbledon's winning history- you can do it Andy, good luck."

Murray is once again carrying the hopes of the home nation, desperate for a first Wimbledon men's singles champion since 1936.

The 24-year-old from Scotland has reached the semifinals the last two years, and after a poor run of form following a loss to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final, he has raised hopes again by making the French Open semifinals and winning the grass-court title at Queen's last week.

A rare day off in the lead-up to Wimbledon was interrupted by a 7am call from the doping testers on Thursday. It was the third time he had been called upon for a sample since losing at Roland Garros.

"It's a lot of testing, but just part of our job, unfortunately," Murray said. "It's just very intrusive when you get someone sort of in your house in the morning. When you're going to the toilet and they're staring at you, it's a bit ... you know, in your own home, it's just quite strange feeling."