SWINDON’S Sam Hutt believes Andy Murray’s superb sporting summer will inspire young Britons to pick up a tennis racquet.

Hutt, a regular at Futures events around Britain, was delighted to see the Scot become Britain’s first male Grand Slam singles champion in 76 years, in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

And the Bisham Abbey-based 18-year-old says Murray’s five-set win in the US Open final at the Arthur Ashe Stadium will have positive far-reaching consequences for the sport in Britain.

“I think more people will keep an eye out for him now,” said Hutt.

“The fact he won the US Open and made the final of Wimbledon all in the same year means there will be more people following him.

“You have to bear in mind the timing of it, that it came after the Olympics, where he won gold.

“Because of the way tickets were sold, there was not necessarily a lot of regular tennis fans there, so I think more people saw how capable he actually was.

“It will have an effect on quite a lot of youngsters in the same way this whole British summer of sport has.

“More and more kids in general will start to play sport and tennis is starting to come up as one of the top sports to play.

“It’s good to see kids playing it and walking around wearing (Rafa) Nadal sweatbands - more and more people are talking about tennis now.”

Federer might have been Hutt’s idol growing up in tennis, but he had a lot of admiration for Murray’s hard work on the physical side of his game.

Questions were raised about the Glasgow-born player’s stamina in the early stages of his career, but those concerns have long since been blown away.

“Federer was a big one for me growing up, but from the point of view of how fit Murray became after struggling earlier in his career, I looked up to him,” said Hutt.

“Murray could barely walk after playing Nalbandian (at Wimbledon in 2005), but after five sets in the US Open final, (Novak) Djokovic looked tired.”