Andy Murray moves up to third in tennis rankings

With two weeks to go before the French Open, the new world rankings will be announced today - and Andy Murray will become the first British man ever to reach number three since the rankings were introduced in 1973.

Murray leapfrogs Serbia's Novak Djokovic to fall in behind Rafael Nadal at one and Roger Federer at two. And according to Tim Henman, Britain's last big hope, who made it to number four for a while but never got higher, this is not the limit for the 21-year-old Scot. He could, says Henman, overtake Federer.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Andy was second in the world pretty soon. He could do it in the next few weeks," Henman told the Daily Telegraph. "Just look at the way he has played against Federer... Andy has got an unbelievable record against him, and you don't do that by chance."

Murray, who will be 22 on Friday, will spend this week playing on the clay courts of Madrid in preparation for Paris. He is being coached now by Miles Maclagan, having fallen out with Brad Gilbert in November 2007.

Despite the fiery relationship with Gilbert, Henman still believes it was the turning point in Murray's career. "His game has improved so much. I think that everyone reflects on Andy and Brad in a bad light, saying that they clashed, and, yeah, it wasn't a great mix of personalities, but a lot of what Brad was working on is what Andy does now."

Murray has achieved the number three spot without ever winning a grand slam title. He made it to the US final last year but lost out to Federer.

The big question among British tennis fans is: do we at last have a player who's good enough to win one or more of the big four events: the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open? Yes, absolutely, says Henman. "The rankings don't lie".

The last Brit to win a grand slam was Fred Perry at the 1936 US Open. Today we tend to think of the Perry clothing line but a timely biography, The Last Champion, by the Observer's tennis correspondent Jon Henderson, reveals that, as well as being a great tennis player, Perry had a reputation as a ladies' man.

The press never mentioned his love life at the time, but the 6ft tall Perry, blessed with matinee idol looks, had a number of affairs with leading Hollywood actresses, including Marlene Dietrich. According to Dietrich's daughter, Maria Riva, "Fred Perry taught my mother to play tennis with great patience and lots of little passionate hugs, punctuated with rapid kissing between flying balls."

He also enjoyed dalliances with Clark Gable's former girlfriend Loretta Young and the original blonde bombshell, Jean Harlow.

This is the equivalent of discovering that Andy Murray has been cavorting between tournaments with Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Alba and Megan Fox.