History and hype rests on Andy Murray's shoulders

Jun 22 2009 by Brian Dick, Birmingham Post

The last time a Briton won the Gentlemen’s Singles crown at The Championships there had only been one World War, the atomic bomb had not been developed, the Iron Curtain had not even been drawn never mind opened again and Laurel and Hardy were in their pomp. Ah happy days.

Fred Perry, that’s right the guy who used to make clothes – he was also a tennis player too you know – had been world No 1 for four straight years and in 1936 his triumph on the most manicured of lawns was his third in succession and easily his most emphatic.

The son of Samuel Perry, Co-operative MP for Kettering, blazed his way to a 6-1, 6-1, 6-0 victory over Nazi Germany’s Gottfried von Cramm to complete the most one-sided men’s showpiece in Wimbledon history, worse even than some of the thrapings handed out to Jimmy Connors in the late 70s and early 80s.

Bunny Austin made the final two years later but since then there has not been so much as a sniff for a home player.

The last day of the most prestigious tournament of any sport has provided interest for Egyptians, Peruvians, Romanians and Swiss but not once, in the last 71 years, for the land that invented the game.

That could all end in a fortnight’s time. Arise Sir Andrew Murray, once the surly Scotsman from Dunblane who only 12 months ago was lambasted for his ‘loutish’ behaviour in beating Richard Gasquet, but now a new national saviour, the man to deliver us from mediocrity and surely a knight in waiting.

Working on the basis there’s no such thing as a cash-strapped bookie, Andy Murray has his first and, potentially, most realistic opportunity of ending that drought.

According to the odds-making community the 22-year-old, without a Grand Slam to his name remember, had a better chance of taking the title on July 5 than reigning champion Rafael Nadal.

Perhaps the knee troubles that forced Nadal to withdraw last Friday had something to do with that but not as much as the heady cocktail of optimism and blind faith that affects most right-minded individuals every June.

It must be true too because the BBC’s Wimbledon trail starts with Murray and has him playing some Swiss chap on an electronically generated image of a tennis court. So that’s where the makers of Tron got to.

The collective confidence stems from the fact Murray is seeded and world ranked No 3 and arrives at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club as the first Brit since Austin in 1938, to prevail on the grass at Queen’s Club.

Not only did he win the AEGON Championships without losing a set, he won the whole event without blemish. This is a young man at the very top of his game.

But that’s not the only reason he’s being tipped with such certainty. There is also the fact there are, for the first time in a while, chinks in the armour of his main rivals.

Roger Federer, the joint most successful player since Grand Slams began, does not beat as many players before he steps on court these days.

Definitely not Murray who has defeated the great man in each of their last four meetings and six times in eight attempts. Though never in a final Federer points out.

One wonders whether the effect of the 27-year-old’s glory at Roland Garros, where he became just the sixth man to have won all four majors, will have slaked his thirst for success or made him hungry for more.

Until last year, when Nadal overpowered him with sheer willpower, Wimbledon’s Centre Court had been Federer’s house. That is not the case any more.

Once the rest of the tour smells the blood of vulnerability they are quick to circle and Murray is at the head of the queue for the next bite.

Nevertheless Federer starts as an evens favourite with Murray at around 3-1 against. Before pulling out Nadal was given just a one in five chance of retaining his crown.

Where Federer was ergonomically designed to play tennis and appears to do so without strain, Nadal is as brutal on his body as he is on his opponents.

Dodgy knees prevented the force of nature from blowing into Queen’s a couple of weeks ago and have ultimately cost him his Wimbledon championship.

He too has lost his aura of invincibility thanks not only to Murray’s constant chipping at the edifice – Murray beat the Majorcan at Flushing Meadow last year and in Rotterdam this – as much as someone as deservedly unheralded as Robin Soderling coming round to his house and nipping off with the family silverware.

Somehow, more than three weeks after the event, it still doesn’t seem conceivable that a man with Soderling’s movement and temperament - or lack of either - could inflict on Nadal his first ever loss at Roland Garros.

So, assuming he doesn’t draw Soderling, Murray it is then. Three score and ten years of hurt are about to end with Scottish fingers wrapping themselves around that famous old trophy at a venue more English than any other.

Possibly, but possibly not. Murray’s opportunity this year is probably only as good as Tim Henman’s in 2001 when - but for rain - he would have beaten Goran Ivanisevic in the semis and gone on to face Pat Rafter in the final.

Henman was short on luck that year and Murray must not be this.

His counter-punching style will always afford a big-hitting opponent the chance to seize the initiative and grass court tennis being what it is, games and sets can race away quicker than on any other surface.

Murray does not blast people off the court, he suffocates them and as such remains vulnerable to players like Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez who beat him at the French Open and Nadal’s compatriot Fernando Verdasco who prevented him from winning January’s Australian Open – the last Grand Slam Murray was supposed to win.

Which means someone like Juan Martin Del Potro, Giles Simon, or Marat Safin - all powerful men - could upset the strawberry cart before it rumbles into the last four.

All of which suggests punters are putting their hard-earned on Murray as much in hope as expectation. After all 71 years is a long time to wait.

And finally spare a thought for poor old Dan Evans, the 19-year-old from Hall Green whose wild card entry sees him paired with current world No 12 Nikolay Davydenko.

Not the easy draw he was hoping for but Davydenko’s record at the AELTC is lamentable so in Evans’ case expect the unexpected but in Murray’s don’t expect the expected.