I was pleasantly tired after an emotionally exhausting day watching through television Andy Murray become the first male champion of the All England Wimbledon tennis club for the first time in 77 years on the 7th day of the 7th month, Then yesterday evening after a day basking in warmth and then the heat in what may have become for the UK High summer I watched an equally emotional documentary about the young man who in the space of twelve months has self fulfilled and justified all the effort required to become Olympic and US Champion to add to the ultimate achievement of the Home of Tennis championship.
According to the documentary his maternal grandfather played professional football and his mother also a former professional tennis player, is now leading member of the Scottish coaching and tennis development team but from an early age it was his determination to win and hatred of losing which became the driving force with led him at fifteen to press his parents to be allowed to join an established and recognised international training and development centre in Spain where he could practice against the best of age group, and which has similarly led him to spend time in Miami each year where is again able to practice against players of quality as well as train and improve his fitness in a warm clime.
However it also can be argued that the event which has had the greatest impact on his life and that of his family, particularly his mother is that both her boys attended the Dunblane Primary school when a local man entered the school gym and shot sixteen children and one teacher. She had the experience of going to the school to find out if both her boys were safe and then sharing in the grief of those parents whose children had not. She had given lifts to the murderer, a man who had run a youth club attended by Andy. Understandably both find it difficult to impossible to talk to about what happened although it was evident that both are contributing to their community and to ensure that the town is known for something more than the shootings.
Reading through the statistics of his progress as a tennis player fails to communicate the work that has been involved and which could be termed self torture from 10 minute ice baths to using a device which is a kind of restraint which he has to push against in order to strike at a ball away from him and which is designed to increase his mobility.
He has also been one of those leading the approach of employing a full team of specialists from a training partner who he met in Spain and remains associated for the past 11 years, to a masseur, a fitness coach, a dietician and a tennis coach which he has changed over the past five years several times and it with the recruitment of Ivan Lendl a major championship winner but also someone with the experience of losing several times in major finals. He convinced Murray that he is good enough to be at the top and win championships and to move on from points badly played, lost, unfair decision to concentrating on the next point to be played.
Murray commenced to play completive tennis from an early age wining a significant competition at the age of 12 and then winning prestigious competitions in Scotland and in July 2004 age 17 he played and lost to the French rising young man Jo Wilfried Tsonga in the second round. He went on to win the US Junior open in the same year and became the BBC Young Sports personality of the year reaching number two in the world as a junior.
In 2005 he was ranked 407 in professional list of male rankings. And eight years later he is number 2 with every possibility of moving to number 1, should be become successful in defending his US tile in a month and then win the Australian in the New Year. Ranked only 312 he became the first Scots born individual to reach the third round at Wimbledon and by the end of 2005 was ranked in the top hundred at 64. It was not until five years ago that he reached the quarter finals at Wimbledon
He lost to Djokovic in the final of the Australian grand slam on three straight steps. After beating his rival in the final of an event in Brisbane in 2012 he lost to him in a semi final in the Australian Open. He had reached number four in the world behind Federer, Nadal and Djokovic but it is over the past year that he approached greatness first with defeat in the men’s single’s final against Federer at Wimbledon where he won the first set but then could not counter the skill and determination of his opponent and was emotionally shattered after his defeat before the tennis world and the British public generally. In that final the crowd were reluctant to roar him to success because of their respect and admiration for Federer.
It was a different story at the Olympic Games where he won the final defeating Djokovic in the semi final and Federer in the final and then getting a silver medal in the mixed doubles with Laura Robson. He then went to New York and won the open Championship the first British man to win any of the four major championships in the world for over 70 years.
An injury prevented participation in the French open a month before Wimbledon and proved a blessing in disguise enabling him to combine rehabilitation of the injury with preparation for what was to prove the great event of his life and likely to remain so in terms of his tennis life. He won the domestic warm up competition in grass at Queen’s club. His opening games in the Wimbledon 2013 men’s single events appeared comparatively trouble free and the early departures of Nadal and Federer removed potential major obstacles although the committee had seeded him second to Djokovic representing their world tennis rankings. He then had a major wobble in the quarter final losing the first two sets but fighting back in an exhausting contest to win 3.2 and seasoned watchers had the feeling that time he was not to be denied. It was his opponent to be who then had an extraordinary five hour contest in the semi final with other seasoned followers commented that Djokovic would recover and be in the form which had made his reach and remain in the number one position for the past two years.
If one simply reads the broad stats of the final Murray could appear to have won easily in his three set to love victory. However he was down 4.1 in the second set before breaking back and similarly lost a break in service in the third only to regain the initiative and serve for the title 5. 4 ahead in the third. He then won his first three service points and the nation gathered itself to let out a roar of relief but the Djokovic demonstrated why he is number with, not only getting the next three points but gaining the advantage to come with a point of squaring the match not one or twice but three and may indeed have been four times with Murray looking dazed and Djokovic having a wicked smile on his face knowing that Murray looked spent and that if he prevented defeat in the game he might well accomplish what seemed impossible to take the set and the next two with Murray deflated and going to tennis pieces at having coming so close but proving yet again unable to take that next step,
However it was not to be, Murray saved the break back point and went on to take the match with national joy unparalleled, I think since the World Cup was won with only regaining the Ashes and magic Saturday evening at the Olympic games coming close. Murray looked dazed almost shocked by the outcome and I suspect he still is yet to come to terms with becoming an immortal in his lifetime, with a title and a national role for the asking. However he is unlikely to stop the treadmill he has created for himself with winning Slams, defending his title in New York and winning sometime the Australian and the French, defending Wimbledon for the next three to five seasons and becoming the World’s rated number one player all realistic targets, he wants and with all the indications that he does. On Monday afternoon he was welcomed by the Prime Minister at number 10 taken into the garden for champagne with the Deputy PM, Leader of the Opposition and Leader for the Scottish Nationalists at Westminster.
As when an Englishman won the Toru De France and the successes at the Olympics there is immediate tennis talk of Legacy and what his victory could mean for the future of the sport. For my own part it was a privilege to be alive to witness the event and I hope he takers time to enjoy the experiences with his friends and his family. I suspect he will not let up on the drive to continue winning but he will enjoy the playing that much more, knowing what he is now capable of doing and fearing no one, Nadal perhaps on clay and the next young man or so setting their sight on getting to where he is, although I would be surprised if that is a Britishman. Laura Robson for the women’s title, maybe.
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