Andy Murray Plays His Perfect Match

Written by: Staff on 6th August 2012

Andy Murray Plays His Perfect Match

epa03343450 Andy Murray of Britain after winning the Men's Final against Roger Federer of Switzerland during the London 2012 Olympic Games Tennis competition in Wimbledon, Greater London, Britain, 05 August 2012. EPA/ANDY RAIN |

Andy Murray produced the perfect match of his life to dispel the memory of those distraught tears of just a month ago and make the man many regard as the greatest player tennis has ever known look simply ordinary as the All England Club’s Centre Court became the latest site of Britain’s gold rush.

The 25 year-old Scot, beaten in four Grand Slam finals with the most painful defeat coming on the same plot of hallowed turf four weeks earlier, beat Roger Federer in stunning fashion and to the outsider looking on the one-sidedness of the 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 score line was a perfect illustration of the dominance.

Murray thought of things in a different way. “In a lot of ways the score line is irrelevant,” said the champion after one hour and 56 minutes of the best tennis performance he’d ever produced. “When I look back on the match it will be one I remember as the biggest win of my career for sure. It was definitely one of the best matches I’ve played and I dealt with all the situations that were in front of me.”

Never before in tennis has there been an opportunity to return to the scene of such a painful loss so quickly and the fact he was facing the same opponent speaks volumes for Murray’s new-found mental strength.

“I’ve had some tough loses, I’ve had a lot of questions asked about me many times,” said Murray, more than mindful of the public perception of him habitually falling short when the biggest of prizes were on offer. “It was obviously a huge match for me but it was a big match for Roger as well. I’m sure the singles gold medal was something he wanted to win because it’s one of the few things in tennis he hasn’t got yet. Just to win today, and do it in the way I did, makes all those loses a little easier to take.”

Now Murray will head across the Atlantic, looking at the upcoming US Open as the perfect opportunity to break his run of disappointments at the major tournaments. “I hope this will give me the confidence to go there and believe in myself a bit more than I have in the past,” said Murray. “Hopefully I can have a good run and give myself a shot at winning.”

Murray revealed a four minute-long telephone conversation with coach Ivan Lendl set him on his way. “It was a bit about the mindset and the way I was going into the match,” said the gold medalist. “How I was going to approach it and just a couple of small tactical things. Then he and the guy that’s with me all the time Dani Vallverdu spoke a couple of times. Dani went over the tactics with me about an hour before I went on court.”

Now Murray wants more British youngsters to head to the tennis courts, or any sporting venue, in the wake of his victory. “For a country of our size we’ve done amazingly well so far this Olympics,” he said. “If we could just get 5%, 10% more people playing any sports, we might be able to compete one day with the big, big countries, like the USA and China especially. We’re not that far off.

“If we can make tennis a bit more accessible to kids, the more kids we will have playing and the more chance we’ve got of having great depth and of this becoming an even better sport.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

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