Jamie Murray to play in Glasgow Challenger

Jamie Murray will return to Glasgow as the Lawn Tennis Association has announced that an ATP Challenger tour event will be played in the city for the second year running.

The event will again take place at Scotstoun Sports Campus, between the 16th and 22nd of September.

"Jamie Murray" by Carine06 [CC BY-SA 2.0]

Murray, who has been involved in the planning of the event, spoke of his excitement.

He said in a statement announcing the event: “We hope to make this year’s tournament more successful, providing a platform to inspire more young people in Scotland to take up our sport. I look forward to seeing everyone again in September.”

This will be the second professional tournament in Scotland this year, following on from a lower level event in February.

The Challenger event last year, which was won Lukas Lacko of Slovakia, was a great success which attracted thousands of spectators across the week.

The announcement comes amidst sustained calls from Tennis Scotland and others to invest more money in tennis in Scotland and take advantage of the “Murray legacy”.

LTA chief executive Scott Lloyd spoke of the opportunities for increased participation due to the event.

He said: “Staging tournaments like this means we can provide our pipeline of talented, young British players with more opportunities to compete at home. We also know that giving fans the chance to enjoy thrilling tennis up close can inspire them to play.”

Glasgow has staged several Davis Cup ties in recent years but last year was the first time in a number of years that a professional tournament had been held in the city.

The Davis Cup at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow

The ATP Challenger Tour is the second highest level of professional tennis behind the ATP World Tour. There were five Challenger Tour events in Britain last year with the Glasgow event being the only one in Scotland.