Last week Henman announced he would retire after England's Davis Cup World Group qualifier against Croatia next month at Wimbledon, which means British tennis for the foreseeable future is all about the Murrays. Andy's older brother, Jamie, a doubles specialist, won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title with Jelena Jankovic. There is little top 50 talent beyond the younger Murray. The proverbial thinking among British wags is that the Brits are going to endure a long drought.

"I think you guys have sometimes got short term memories," Henman told reporters this week. "The beginning of the year he [Murray] was probably playing Top 5 tennis. That obviously has been cut short by injury. That's part and parcel of being a professional player. With both Greg [Rusedski] and I retiring now, it certainly is the end of an era from that point of view. Hopefully the pieces has been put in place so the next generation can come through. Andy, fingers crossed, is hopefully going to play a big part of that."

"I'm not walking on the court thinking Tim Henman's not playing, there's much more pressure on me," Murray says. "I'm just wanting to go out and play for myself. It's not really about anyone else. It's about you, your own career and your own matches."

He is definitely not a Henman clone. Indeed, just below a gaggle of British journalists who were following his every move (a popcorn-munching Bud Collins and his wife, Anita, came over at one point to add a star-spangled feel to the press corps), Murray dropped a very loud f-bomb with the second set tied at 2-2 after he netted a makeable forehand. He was given a warning, though such emotion in New York is appreciated and often revered.

Murray, in fact, seems to have plenty of regular bloke in him. He takes the subway to his National Tennis Center (he doesn't drive yet) and has been dating the same woman (Kim Sears) for nearly two years, an eternity in tennis circles where new romances often fizzle by the end of the fourth set. He supports Hibernian of the Scottish Premier League and is also a bit of a stat nerd, reciting the draws and results of recent majors.

"I'm pretty good at predicting matches, too," he says. "When Max Mirnyi played Marcos Baghdatis in the first round, [coach] Brad [Gilbert] said to me, Baghdatis is going to win. But I knew Mirnyi beat him in the first round at Monte Carlo. It doesn't mean he was going to win but I remember matchups. I just love tennis. I love what's going on."

What was going on at the top of the Grandstand on Thursday was the Union Jack affixed to the wall of the stadium. The flag belonged to Mary Pope, the Chairman of the British Association of Tennis Supporters (BATS), a 100-member strong group that travels around the world following the Davis Cup team and British players.

"I think Andy's relationship with the British tennis fans is pretty good," says Preston, who is writing for Scotland's Sunday Herald at this tournament. "He's a godsend to British tennis fans, particularly to younger fans. He's young, he's open emotionally, which is very different than Tim. He's much more emotional on the court, more expressive and comfortable talking about his emotions off the court. He's very honest. He'll come into press conferences and say how he feels and why he feels it. He's much more raw."

Like most Brits, Pope said she has been waiting her whole life for one of her countrymen to win Wimbledon. But that's not the case with Murray.

"I love New York, the city, not just the tennis," he says. "I won here as a junior and I remember how well I was treated. Whereas at Wimbledon you don't get to eat in the players restaurant as a junior, here you get to eat where all the players are. I've said openly the U.S. Open is my favorite tournament. If somebody said you can win just one Grand Slam, which one do you want to win? I want to win the U.S. Open."