Andy Murray
On May 15 1987, a boy named Andy Barron Murray was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Having born 6 years after Federer and a year after Nadal, great things were expected of him in the world of Tennis. Unfortunately, on May 22 (just 7 days later) another lad named Novak Djokovic was born in Belgrade. Since then, he was always compared to his good friend and has mostly fallen short, trailing their head-to-head 10-24. With 3 tournaments to go this year, Andy Murray has an outside chance of ending this year as World No. 1 for the first time in his career. This article is about some of the key moments in his career.
The Struggles
Murray has always played a catch-up game to Djokovic - he entered the Top 10 in the ATP ratings as a teenager in March 2007 - a month after Djokovic. He reached his first GrandSlam Final at the US Open in 2008, a year after Djokovic - both of them losing to Roger Federer in straight sets. He would then go on to lose his next 3 GrandSlam finals (Australian Open 2010 losing to Federer, Australian Open 2011 losing to Djokovic and Wimbledon 2012 losing to Federer). He ended up getting too emotional and crying in both of his losses to Federer.
The Wins
After losing his first four GrandSlam finals, he would then finally win his first GrandSlam at the 2012 US Open (and the 2012 Olympics Gold medal) - thus making a name of himself and extending the Big Three (Federer, Nadal and Djokovic) to Big Four. Since then, he has gone on to win 2 more GrandSlams and another Olympic Gold Medal in Singles.
The Peer Pressure
Djokovic is known for his deep serve returns and all-round consistency, Federer for his flair and genius and Nadal for his grit and power.
Despite being part of the Big Four, he was never the favorite to win when facing against the other three. While Andy Murray possessed all these qualities (except maybe the genius of Federer :P), he always fell short when compared to these legends. And yet, he gave his 100% everytime he stepped on the court, fought fiercely and emerged victorious more than a few times.
I came to know recently that he carries a cheat-sheet with him all the time (see image below). It definitely tells a lot about his fighting spirit and more importantly the mental pressure for him to perform.
Irrespective of how his year or career ends from here on, he’ll be remembered as one of the finest Tennis players - not just the Scottish/British fans but everyone around the world. Here’s to wishing him a great year and career ahead!
Kaushik Rangadurai
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