ANDY MURRAY will kick-start his Wimbledon campaign next week against a fellow Brit who overcame cancer as a child and is arguably the HARDEST man on the circuit.

Ryan Peniston is not known to many people outside of domestic tennis circuits but the British No.4 has one interesting backstory and journey to these Championships.

As a toddler his life was saved by medics as he underwent chemotherapy and required surgery to remove a tumour following a bout of rhabdomyosarcoma, which is a soft tissue cancer.

The illness stunted his growth and though he is six-foot tall now, he says he was a “foot smaller than all my peers up until the age of 15-16”.

Due to that lack of height growing up, Peniston had to “rely on other skills to win tennis matches”, which would involve “anticipating, reading the game a little better instead of having a massive serve”.

It was only when he became an adult that he finally sat with his mum and dad – a retired train driver – and learned the truth of what he went through aged one and two.

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Peniston, who is ranked 267th in the world, said: “When I was a kid, or even a teenager, I didn’t really ask my parents about it.

“But when I got older, probably 18 plus, I wanted to know more of what happened and kind of who was responsible for helping me.

“My parents told me all about the doctors and nurses at Barts Hospital and they told me everything they went through as well, which was emotional, hard to hear. 

“I’m glad that I definitely asked them about it.

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“I definitely wanted to know more just so I could almost share and relate to other people better.

“I’ve been back to Barts, for sure. I used to have check-ups there but I now have them close to home.

“I was able to give a little bit to charity to donate to them after one of my doubles tournaments which was really nice. It was a nice feeling to do that.”

During the Covid pandemic, the 27-year-old joined the nation most Thursday nights to stand on his front door step and clap the carers, which included members of his own family.

It was people like his Malaysian-born mum Penny – a part-time nurse at Southend Hospital on an elderly and gastric ward – who kept the community going under enormous pressure.

It was also individuals like his two elder brothers – Sam is a paediatric nurse and Harry is a junior doctor – who felt the full brunt of the coronavirus crisis.

Peniston’s career was hardened by several years on the south coast of France in Nice – he is fluent in French – and he also studied international business at the University of Memphis.

Few had heard of the Essex boy until a year ago when he shocked world No.5 Casper Ruud from Norway at the Queen’s Club Championships and made the quarter-finals at Baron's Court.

Then a week later he did a Scandi double by knocking out Dane Holger Rune in his opening Eastbourne International tie.

Though his bank balance swelled up by £100,000 last summer – he was given a lucrative wildcard for Wimbledon – his fortunes did not improve as he spent a large part of last autumn resting his wrist.

His inner confidence on the court comes from his hardness off it – in fact he is probably the TOUGHEST GUY on the ATP Tour.

Peniston, who has fewer than 2,400 Twitter followers, said: “I can confirm I’m a black belt in a martial arts called Tang Soo Do which my family also practice.  

“I did that, I started at the age of 4 or 5 and it’s up until the age of 13 I started to do less lessons.

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“But, no, it helped me massively with flexibility, discipline and mindset and just respect. I think that was a big one that you learn in those lessons. 

“It was a lot of fun doing the sparring, for sure.”

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