Granite City saw an early glimpse of genius

Andy Murray gave a glimpse o f the bright future that lay ahead when he r epresented Scotland in the Aberdeen Cup in 2005 and 2006.

The exhibition matches between Scotland and England were held at the AECC with Murray inspiring the Scots to victory on both occasions.

This was long before the Dunblane tennis player claimed his three Grand Slams but he had already gained a reputation as a rising star and a capacity crowd of 3,000 turned up to see what the fuss was about.

Murray didn’t disappoint in the inaugural match, defeating Greg Rusedski 10-1 in a tiebreak in the deciding match as the Scots won 4-2.

The tournament also saw Murray team up with his brother Jamie for the first time as professionals as they defeated England’s Rusedski and David Sherwood.

Jamie Murray said afterwards: “Andy was in a bit of a funny mood before we went out and I think he was maybe a bit nervous because he was playing with me and he wanted to do well.”

The following year, Andy Murray criticised the court at the AECC, despite helping Scotland to a 6-1 thrashing of England.

He rounded off the two-day event by defeating Rusedski 6-3, 6-4 as the home side eased to victory but was left unhappy with the playing surface.

Murray, who was ranked 17 in the world at the time, said: “The court is dangerous to play on.

“It’s slippy and the line judges are very close to the back so I’d have comfortably twisted my ankle.”