andy murry

Murray started the year ranked World No. 64.

Murray began the year with second round defeats to higher ranked players at tournaments in Adelaide, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand. After winning his first round match against Kenneth Carlsen in Auckland, Murray told an on-court reporter that he thought "we both played like women in the first set".[38] He later explained that he was merely referring to remarks by female player Svetlana Kuznetsova during a Hopman Cup match.[39] In Melbourne the following week, Murray played and lost his first career match at the Australian Open, to Juan Ignacio Chela.

Murray lost another first round match in Zagreb, Croatia to World No. 5 Ivan Ljubicic but then won his first ATP title, the SAP Open in San Jose, California. He defeated former World No. 1 players Andy Roddick in the semifinals and Lleyton Hewitt in the final. He was defeated in the quarterfinals of his next tournament in Memphis, Tennessee by Robin Söderling. That was followed by a second round loss at the 2006 Indian Wells Masters and a first round loss at the 2006 Miami Masters.

In April, Murray teamed with Greg Rusedski to lose a Davis Cup doubles match against Serbia & Montenegro in Glasgow. Murray incurred a $2,500 fine for swearing at the umpire during this match. His words were over a line call, which were caught on microphone and televised live. Later he admitted swearing, saying "We got an absolute shocker and I told the umpire how bad he was".[40]

On European clay, Murray failed to advance past the second round in five consecutive tournaments, including three ATP Masters Series events and a first round loss to Gael Monfils at the French Open. Murray's muscle cramping problems contributed to his defeat in the first round of the Monte Carlo Masters,[41] and he was hampered by a back problem in his defeat at the French Open. Murray attributed his fitness problems to the fact that he was still growing, saying, "I had an X-ray and it showed the bones aren't fully grown. That's why my back gets sore and that's why I get cramp. I've worked hard on getting it stronger. I'll be fitter next year."[42]

In the United Kingdom on grass, Murray was defeated in the first round of the Stella Artois Championships at Queen's Club by World No. 114 Janko Tipsarevic. He reached the quarterfinals in Nottingham where he lost to Italian Andreas Seppi. Murray seemed to break out of his slump by defeating World No. 5 Roddick in straight sets in the third round of Wimbledon before losing in straight sets to World No. 16 Marcos Baghdatis in the fourth round. Immediately after Wimbledon, Murray won a singles match but lost a doubles match as Great Britain lost a Davis Cup tie to Israel in Eastbourne, United Kingdom. Continuing on grass in the United States, Murray lost in the semifinals of the tournament in Newport, Rhode Island to Justin Gimelstob.