Murray Sets British Record

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 25th June 2013

Murray Sets British Record

epa03758348 Andy Murray of Britain returns to Benjamin Becker of Germany during their first round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 24 June 2013. EPA/GERRY PENNY |

Andy Murray has scored two notable victories after moving into Wimbledon’s second round. First, the world no.2 became the most successful British player in Grand Slam history, overtaking the legendary Fred Perry.

In addition his exploits over the last year, reaching last year’s Wimbledon final, winning the Olympic gold medal and then finally ending the 76 years long wait for British male Grand Slam champion at the US Open, have caused Virginia Wade – the 1977 Wimbledon champion who branded the Scot a ‘drama queen’ 13 months ago, to reassess her opinions.

But total contrition is not the Wade way and instead feels Murray – whose 107th singles match against Benjamin Becker resulted in a comprehensive 6‑4, 6‑3, 6‑2 win and took his total to 107 victories, overtaking the Perry record that stood for more than three quarters of a century – may have benefited from her description.

Wade, a longtime resident of New York and also winner of the US and Australian Open titles, made her far from complimentary observation after thinking Murray over-exaggerated a back injury during his 2012 French Open opener against Jarkko Nieminen. He seemed unable to move at one stage but recovered to win 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2.

“I think maybe it did help him,’ says Wade, now aged 67 years old. “What I said was that it is hard to play against someone acting like a drama queen.

“I’ve looked back at the tape and the way I said it was actually very moderate. I was basically sympathizing with his opponent because as any player will tell you, it can be very hard and confusing to play against someone you think might be injured, and it looked like Andy was about to go up to the net and shake hands.”

Wade admitted she was surprised with the fuss her comments caused. “What happened is that it started a bandwagon, people picked up on it and it wasn’t just me,” she said. “It went on for weeks and weeks. Tommy Haas said something and so on.

“‘You don’t know what went on behind closed doors, maybe Ivan Lendl said, “Perhaps there’s an element of truth in this.’”

Wade admitted she sees a lot of her young self in the 26 year-old from Dunblane. “I got labeled very early in my career for being temperamental and people said that’s why I lost matches,” she said. “I think we were very similar in that and other ways, although I think he may take more notice of what people say.

‘Maybe since Lendl got hold of him it affects him less but looking at his Twitter, for example, it seems he has a very clear perception of what he thinks about tennis and if other people don’t go along with him he disputes that, and perhaps takes it personally.”

Murray admitted he was unaware of breaking Perry’s record but said: “Grand Slams are obviously the pinnacle of our sport. They are the tournaments I prepare extremely hard for and where you want to try to play your best tennis. I guess that shows I’ve played some of my best tennis at the Slams, and hopefully I can continue.”