Sports Focus - Andy Murray

WOW, what a British summer for Andy Murray so far! If becoming the first British player to win Queens for 71 years wasn't enough, he reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon as well! OK, we were all praying and some expecting him to reach the final but we have to remember that he is only 22 and is only really establishing his career at this point.

After climbing the world rankings over the past few years, Murray has firmly established himself as a big-game player and being regarded as the favourite for Wimbledon by some, shows just how far he has come over the last 12 months. Winning Queens took his career titles to 12 and was his fourth Tour triumph this year.

I would even go so far as to say that I believe him to be the best player in the world at the moment. He is able to play at the highest level for longer than anyone else due to his phenomenal fitness levels. Andy has quite a unique setup, in that instead of having a single coach he has a team of experts that includes:

Miles Maclagan - A former pro, Maclagan replaced American Brad Gilbert as Andy's number one coach. Responsible for Andy's mature play, clever tactics and style of recent years, Miles has been nothing but positive for Andy

Jez Green - Another important factor in Andy's success is his physical condition and a lot of this comes down to the man nicknamed "Jezebel". His main responsibilities includes Andy's diet and preparation, introducing the young star to sushi and protein bars to help bulk up the muscles, you might remember Andy flexing the guns at last years Wimbledon.

Matt Little - This is the man responsible for Andy's new found strength and getting him into bikram yoga! Strength and conditioning is Little's main role in Team Murray!

Andy Ireland - Fitness coach Ireland is nicknamed "Needles" for his acupunture skills and has contributed hugely towards maximising Andy's physical performance. He has worked to stop Andy developing injuries and strains, which is something Andy suffered a lot with in the early part of his career.

Yes, losing to Andy Roddick in the semis was disappointing but I expect his experience gained at Wimbledon and Queens in 2009 will only stand him in good stead for the upcoming US Open. I fully expect him to bounce back quickly from his loss to Roddick and wouldn't be at all surprised to see him making a second consecutive visit to the final at flushing meadows, on a more suitable surface for his game, there is absolutely no reason why he can't make this his first major title victory.

Andy really is the real deal and is easily the best British tennis player this country has had since Fred Perry, which makes me pretty proud to be responsible for the design and development of Andy's website - www.andymurray.com.

Simon Evans
Account Manager

Andy Murray Moves Up World Rankings

Bluhalo’s client and British tennis star, Andy Murray (www.andymurray.com) is taking the world by storm. Now the first British man ever to reach Number 3 in the world rankings since they were introduced, Andy is set to take on Spain’s Tommy Robredo in the third round of the Madrid Masters on Thursday this week.

The entire team at Bluhalo would like to take this opportunity to wish Andy the very best of luck with the Madrid Masters and congratulate him on the great accolade of reaching Number 3 in the world rankings.

Congrats to Andy Murray!

After an impressive straight-sets win for Andy Murray in yesterday's first round match against Fabrice Santoro, the team at Bluhalo would like to extend its congratulations to Andy for his impressive start to Wimbledon.

We wish him the best of luck in the second round where he will play Xavier Malisse.

To keep up to date with Andy Murray's latest updates and thoughts on Wimbledon, you can visit his website www.andymurray.com.

AndyMurray.com Launches

Bluhalo is delighted to announce the launch of a new website for world-class tennis player Andy Murray.

The new website, which will include a full content management system, a video section and a blog, will also allow Andy to update fans on what he’s up to anytime of day and night via a Twitter integration.

Bluhalo, who is also redesigning Jamie Murray’s website, has designed the new website to give an engaging fan experience as well as focusing on increasing website traffic and monetisation of the website.

The new website, will sit alongside a number of other high profile sporting websites from Bluhalo’s portfolio including Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Hi-Tec, Subaru World Rally Team, The Premier League, and Prodrive.

Vimal Patel, Business Development Director at Bluhalo comments; “It’s great to be working for one of the UK’s top sportsmen on a site that embraces the best of social media to truly engage the fans and enhance the user experience.”

Rob Stewart, Editor of Andymurray.com comments; “Because Andy's a busy guy, it was important that we found a way he could keep his fans up-to-date without needing to be tied to a laptop.

With so much based around his mobile phone, it's going to be dead simple for him to update the site wherever he is, and with the minimum amount of hassle."

For more on AndyMurray.com view the client case study or visit AndyMurray.com.

Recent pitch successes...

We're pretty pleased with the successes we've had with pitching over the last couple of weeks. We entered into some very competitive pitch processes with some great potential clients and we've come out on top every time!!

The first was for Andy Murray.com. Andy Murray is a young rising tennis star. As part of his increasing popularity and success, Bluhalo is giving his current website (http://www.andymurray.com/) a 'technical make-over' and we're going to be improving his existing online store. This is a great website to add to Bluhalo's sporting repertoire of clients and continues our strategy to be the largest provider of bespoke sports websites in Europe.

Andy Murray's current website.

The second successful pitch was for Paddy Power Plc, Ireland's largest provider of fixed odds sports betting in Ireland. We'll be redesigning and redeveloping their existing corporate website - http://www.paddypowerplc.com/. With 7-1 starting odds, we came out strides ahead of the other agencies pitching for the website!

Paddy Power's current corporate website.

Steve, Mike and Ben out for the night after pitching to Paddy Power in Ireland. (Spencer's behind the camera!)