HOW GOOD IS ANDY MURRAY? BY RICHARD EVANS

Written by: on 12th November 2016
Aegon Tennis Championships Final
HOW GOOD IS ANDY MURRAY? BY RICHARD EVANS

epa05377615 Britain's Andy Murray celebrates after winning a point against Canada's Milos Raonic during the final match at the Aegon Tennis Championships at the Queen's Club in London, Britain, 19 June 2016. EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA  |

From the 10sBalls archives

 

In Britain at least, it is already established that Andy Murray is special. Winning Wimbledon, Olympic Gold, the US Open and leading his country to triumph in the Davis Cup left no room for argument. And by becoming the first player in the very long history of the venerable Queen’s Club to win the title – now called the Aegon Championships – for the fifth time, he became a little bit more so.

An impressive array of great champions had won the title on four occasions. Dating all the way back to Major Ritchie and Anthony Wilding prior to the First World War to Roy Emerson, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt had all managed to collect four trophies as had Murray.

Now the Scot has surpassed them and the achievement is special in many ways. On the day itself, it was particularly so because Murray seemed to be on the verge of disappointing the packed pro-Andy gallery when he trailed 7-6, 3-0 to Milos Raonic, the Canadian with the massive serve who was playing some inspired tennis.

But Murray has his own way to inspire himself. It came on break point against the Raonic serve in that fourth game of the second set and it arrived in the form of a scorching backhand cross court service return off a first serve. Most of the spectators never saw where it landed. Raonic didn’t either. If ever there was a match changer that was it.

It’s what champions do and Murray is a great champion. Trying to evaluate just how great is difficult for a variety of reasons, one of which is often overlooked. Grass is a special surface for Andy but he only gets to play on it three weeks in the year unless it is used for Davis Cup. Just think for a moment, what his title winning record would be if he had the opportunity to play on grass as often as Rafael Nadal gets to play on clay. The same could be said for Roger Federer as far as grass is concerned. It is the cards that life deals you. And you just have to get on with it.

On a broader level, Murray has to just get on with the fact that he is playing in the greatest era men’s tennis has ever known. There may have been moments like the early 1970’s when Rod Laver & Ken Rosewall were still competitive and John Newcombe, Jimmy Connors, Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith and Ilie Nastase were winning titles that rivalled it but none of them were able to maintain the astounding level of consistency through an entire decade that has become the hallmark of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Murray. The first three will go down in history as three of the greatest players ever to pick up a racket. Murray has about three or four years left to prove that he can join them.

Nadal’s career has been stunted by problems with his knees and now his wrist; Federer’s body is starting to show signs of wear and tear and Murray’s progress was thrown off course two years ago when he required back surgery.

Now he is beginning to emerge as the second most consistent performer in the game and the only serious challenger to Djokovic’s supremacy. When I pointed out to him in press conference that he had just completed four tournaments, two of them ATP Masters 1000 events and one a Grand Slam and had reached the final in all four, winning two, he seemed a little surprised.

“I probably haven’t done that before,” said the man who could tell you what a British player did in some remote challenger last week. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have done that before. I hadn’t thought about it, so, you know, that’s a good sign. It’s been a good three months so I need to keep that up until the end of the year. That’s the goal.”

As he mentioned, even in the event before that run of finals, he reached the semi-final in Monte Carlo. “I was pretty close to reaching the final there, too. I am giving myself chances every week right now.”

If it is a given that grass will see Murray at the sharp end of every tournament he plays, it is the advance he has made on clay that has enabled the Scot to established himself as a solid world No 2. Winning Munich and Madrid back to back last year gave him belief and now his clay court record suggests that he is in the top two or three on that surface in the world – something he would not have envisaged two years ago.

His appearance in the French Open final was hardly a surprise, given that he had been a semi-finalist at Roland Garros on three previous occasions and, a week before he defeated Djokovic to add the Italian Open to his success in Madrid the previous year. That suggests a man who is now totally comfortable on clay.

But, sitting next to the huge cup which is on temporary offer to anyone winning at Queen’s, Murray’s only thoughts were of grass and the week’s preparation leading up to Wimbledon. Weather permitting, he and his coaches, Ivan Lendl and Jamie Delgado, had already mapped out a plan that would see him practicing five days, with Tuesday and Saturday set aside to rest – or at least take time to play with his baby daughter and walk the dogs.

It would have meant something to Andy win the trophy on Father’s Day because becoming a parent had added new meaning to his life and made him an even more interesting character than he was already.

He is learning how to make space for his job as well as his family and has the strength of character not to allow either to impair his attention to the other. He spoke in press conference about the need to focus and not to have ‘rubbish’ practice days. When asked to explain what a rubbish practice day was, he answered, “If you don’t have any direction on the practice court or there is no clarity to what you are doing, then you’re just hitting balls and are not really aware of what you’re working on; what shots or patterns of play you’re trying to get better at. The No 1 thing about practice is that you’re engaged in it; that you’re asking questions, trying to learn and that your work hard.”

If Murray doesn’t win Wimbledon this year, lack of effort will have played no part in it. He is growing into Britain’s most dedicated, most effective and most impressive athlete, week in week out, month after month. How good can he become? His three peers already regard him as their equal. By the time Andy Murray is finished, I have a feeling his overall record will have left the doubters far behind.

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