Can Murray carry the hopes of a whole country?

Written by: Staff on 27th January 2012

Can Murray carry the hopes of a whole country?

Andy Murray of Britain returns a shot to Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan in their round four match at the Australian Tennis Open in Melbourne, Australia, 23 January 2012. EPA/DAVID CROSLING |

Or to put it more correctly: Can Murray carry the hopes of a whole unitary state governed by a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary system (As the United Kingdom is properly categorised)? Again the Scottish?/British? question is asked of the man from Dunblane.

New coach Ivan Lendl has added yet more steel to the already ferociously determined Scot (Still a Scot at this stage) and a guile tempered in the fires of many a big match experience. This is Andy Murray’s make or break season, at least until the next one of course. He’ll get as many “make or break” seasons as he needs, at least until we have to start calling them “now or never”, perhaps one or two “destiny fulfilling” years, and then of course finally and most tragically ending up with a good few “last chance saloons”. Let’s hope it doesn’t get to that.

Standing in his way of course is Novak Djokovic, and if he beats the best player in the world on current form, he faces Rafael Nadal – who will quite possibly challenge for the title of best ever player. As they say at clown conventions, no small feat (sorry).

It’s impossible to say whether this is Murray’s best ever chance, we can’t predict the future. Only Djokovic can. Is his best chance yet? Quite possibly. Djokovic has complained of injury problems, as has Nadal (Nah – really?) and Murray hasn’t really been tested so far in this tournament. He does well on this surface, and likes playing in Melbourne.

Murray would have perhaps preferred Federer in the final, having a 6-4 record on hard courts, but of course he’s got to get past the World Number one just to have the privilege of taking on Nadal.