It happened! A British tennis player has won the Gentlemens singles title at Wimbledon, Andy Murray not only silenced his own ever dwindling critics but also an ever present nations.
Each year when Wimbledon comes around, the hype of British success (and failure) is to be seen and heard everywhere- Murray has known all about since his first Wimbledon in 2005 where he produced fantastic tennis to reach the third round despite being ranked well outside the top 100 and not playing a five set match prior to the tournament.
This was the time of a new British hope emerging after the Henman/Rusedski era which, despite large amounts of critics from armchair fans, were very successful for the resources available and reached multiple grand slam semi finals and tournament wins, as well as Rusedski reaching a US Open final in 1997. The recent success of Murray may well overshadow both of these players records completely within the game, but it must not be forgotten when compared with players that have preceded them whose records were far less successful.
As Murray progressed through the early years of his career there were a number of roadblocks thrown in his way that stunted his progression not only as a player but the initial support received from the British public. The appointment of Brad Gilbert as his coach was seen more of a statement than progression by the LTA, as they believed he could not only repeat his past success with other players on Andy but also within British tennis. This benefited none of the parties involved despite Murray continuing to make a natural progression up the rankings, it wasn't what he needed at that time of his career. This also led onto from the Scottish/British debate as to whether he actually enjoyed representing Great Britain in Davis Cup matches and saying he would be 'supporting any team playing England in the World Cup' which was blown up into a full hatred for Scotland's neighbours by the media. Murray's fitness was also scrutinised throughout the early stages of his career with constant niggles occurring during matches as well as ankle injuries which still lead to him wearing supports to this day. The pressure of growing up in an ever changing game of bigger and stronger tennis players probably put Murray back a year or so as he tried to catch up physically with the top players, where he has not only caught up but overtaken the majority of them.
As Murray matured he came to the realisation that he may not be able to fulfill his dream of grand slam success despite reaching finals in Australia and America in an era of three of the greatest players of all time. Then came the appointment of Ivan Lendl at the beginning of 2012, a player like Murray- not the most popular off the court and who also failed to win grand slam finals at the first attempts. Despite a Semi Final defeat in Australia and once again receiving criticism from arm chair fans, it felt to the hardcore British tennis fans that it was more luck than skill or mental attitude that was the missing piece needed to solve his grand slam puzzle. To return to the scene of his most heartbreaking defeat at Wimbledon a month later to win Olympic gold not only broke the tag of choking on the big occasion, but also defied the critics of not being loved by Britain as they roared him on to a gold medal against a devasted Roger Federer who missed out on the only big title to elude his illustrious career.
Then came New York a few months later and success once again and another monkey off his back, his first elusive grand slam victory at the US Open against Novak Djokovic in five sets, at a venue that was always seen as the most likely place he would become a grand slam winner having had success there in the juniors.
Fast forward to the 7th July 2013 after missing the French Open due to injury and fighting his way through the draw where others were falling like fly's to face Djokovic again and a nations 77 years of disappointment was over. But for tennis fans who follow the season for more than just the last week in June and first week of July, Murray has been making Britain proud ever since he came onto the professional tour with performances around the world and notably in 2010 in Australia where I saw him first hand reach the final in a tournament I thought had his name written all over it, where he came up against the legend of Federer.
Competing against the big three of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic makes his recent achievements even greater and after Sunday's victory a repeat in the coming years is more likely than not.
