Andy Murray hopes to become the David Beckham of tennis

LONDON - Britain’s No.1 player Andy Murray hopes to become the David Beckham of tennis, as he bids to deal with the huge pressure of being a sporting superstar.

Murray has the same management team as football legend Beckham, and when the pair launched a campaign recently to increase awareness of malaria, they travelled together to meet Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

“When you start out as a professional, you look to keep the same friends, the same people you have always had around you and just try to be true to yourself and do things that are important to you,” the world No. 3 said.

“When you start changing as a person and getting an inflated opinion of yourself and having a big ego, it becomes a problem. It happens a lot in sport nowadays and David’s done a great job of not letting all the fame and pressure get to him,” The Sun quoted Murray, as saying.

“David seems a very nice guy. It was a bit strange when we went to Downing Street - but to get the chance to meet the Prime Minister was very, very nice. That’s one job I definitely would not want to do,” he said.

Murray has two physical-fitness trainers and also travels with physio Andy Ireland, who even gives the player acupuncture if he is suffering from any aches or strains.

“In terms of the physical stuff, I started doing that 18 months ago when I started working with the new fitness trainers and was just travelling with them every week. I was training during the tennis and it made a huge difference over the year,” Murray said.

“Because of doing that, I was able to start doing the 400 metre and 200 metre runs faster and better - and lifting heavier weights. It wasn’t one thing specifically in the gym I was doing it was pretty much every part of the body I was working.

“I now feel like I can last longer in matches, whereas before I might have played a five-set match in a Slam and felt fine but my recovery wasn’t as good. I’m just recovering better from tough matches now,” he added. (ANI)