Andy Murray reacts after defeating Feliciano Lopez in their quarter-final match at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London June 29, 2011.
Fans in London, who were lining up to get in to Wimbledon on Friday morning, were possibly living more in hope than expectation. That’s nothing new.
There are certain statistics ingrained in any British sports fan (of which this writer is one). England won the 1966 soccer World Cup when held on home soil (and will probably never win nor host it again). The English cricket and rugby teams had epic victories over Australia in 1981 and 2003. And no British male has won Wimbledon since Fred Perry back in 1936. In fact, no British male has won any Grand Slam since then (Perry also won the U.S. Open of 1936). That makes 75 long years of disappointment and dismay.
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Andy Murray, the 24-year-old Scot (who, lest we forget, is Scottish when he loses but British when he wins) represents Great Britain’s best (and indeed only) hope of ending the quite ridiculous drought. He made it to his third Wimbledon semi-final, where he yet again faced the daunting Spaniard, and defending champion, and top seed, Rafael Nadal. Murray lost in straight sets to him last year — and, oh right, Nadal happened to be on a 19-match unbeaten run as he hunts down his 11th Slam and third Wimbledon championship. The winner would take on Novak Djokovic this Sunday.
A tough test, but that would never stop the fans from holding out hope. A crisp Friday morning found them in (mainly) fine fettle. George Crooks, wise beyond his years at 17, tells NewsFeed that, “If he (Murray) plays on top form he has a chance, but it’s slim.” Christine Eldridge, 59, called it “a 50/50 chance. He’d have to play at the top of his game as Rafa pulls out all the stops and has the most concentration.” But Melony Nickels, 35, isn’t exactly on the bandwagon. “It’s a very slim chance and he won’t have the mental power to win.”
Probably for the best if Murray doesn’t read that kind of remark. He would have been better served by accentuating the positive. Three-time champion and commentator John McEnroe told the BBC that, “He’s got plenty left in the tank, and Lord knows he’s going to need it. Let’s be frank, he’s got to play the best match of his life and it will be a five-set win if he’s going to do it.” McEnroe’s BBC colleague, former British hope Tim Henman (who will never be allowed to forget his 2001 semi-final defeat against Goran Ivanisevic) said, “It is so difficult to pick a weakness in Rafa’s game, but I would say it is his backhand return at the deuce box. I think that is where I would like to see Andy using a slower serve out wide and maybe sneaking in to serve and volley a bit, as I think he can win some cheap points.”
As for Murray himself, he was on the wrong end of a 11-4 head-to-head record against Nadal, with the most recent loss coming in the French Open semi-final. But Murray thought that “the switch to grass here does mean my tactics will change. His best shots on the clay will be different on grass and he’ll have different patterns of play, so I need to take that on board before I go out on the court.”
And it was noted that two of Murray’s major wins against Nadal came in the major tournaments: the 2008 U.S. Open semi-final and the 2010 Australian Open quarterfinal. Even more encouraging is that he made the final (though we’ll skirt over the eventual outcome).
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Would it be third time lucky for Murray against the Spaniard at Wimbledon? The bookmakers said no, and so did the person who apparently bet £140,000 ($224,000) in cash that Nadal would win at odds of 1/2 (meaning that he will only win back his stake and then a further half). But many felt that this just might be Murray’s moment, especially if his opponent’s foot injury ended up playing a part. And keeping the optimism flowing, Britain was hoping to celebrate two champions come Sunday: Murray was two games away from creating history while his friend, the boxer David Haye, takes on Wladimir Klitschko in their heavyweight unification clash in Germany. Both Brits are undoubted underdogs, but both were looking for knockout blows.
Well, the country is looking to Haye now after Murray was, if you will, beaten on points by the awesome Nadal, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4. The experts said Murray had to win the first set if he was to have any realistic chance of progressing to his first Wimbledon final. Sure enough, he came racing out of the gates (notwithstanding having to return to the locker room before the match even started), trading blow for blow with the Spaniard. The comparison with a bullfight was inevitable but there was some truth to it: Nadal staring down Murray, digging his heels in but finding his strokes met by the plucky Scot (please note the change of country). Timing is everything and by Murray breaking Nadal’s serve at the last possible moment, he nicked the set 7-5 and the crowd – and country – dared to believe.
Bad move. Nadal simply snorted (and that’s the last bullfighting reference, we promise) and would take control of the second set, though Murray may yet rue two eminently makeable winners he missed at crucial points in the fourth and fifth games. What happened next was simply gruesome: Not only did Nadal break but he reeled off seven games in a row, which not only won him the second set but set him up for the third and, thus, the lead for the first time in the match.
Poor Murray looked dazed, and the omens went from bad to worse with Nadal breaking immediately in the fourth set. From this point, he (and his box of supporters) was the only people who wanted to remain at Wimbledon, as the self-belief had drained out of Murray (especially after squandering two break points in the fourth game) and the flags had stopped flying in the stadium. Even when Murray won a crucial point in the fourth set, causing Nadal to slip and throw his racket in the air, the Spaniard still caught it. The jig was up and the unforgiving numbers game that is sport reminded us that it would now be 76 years and counting since a British man last won the most glorious Grand Slam of them all.
With reporting by Lizzie Galliver
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