After years of angst and near misses, Andy Murray has finally done it ! In New York last night, he won the US Open Tennis Championship to became the first British player to win a Grand Slam title since Fred Perry won the same event in 1936.
It seems that the match was far from easy. Murray won a lengthy first set on the tie break, 12-10, and took the secon 7-5. Djokovic then stormed back to win the next 2 6-2 6-3 and set up a dramatic decider in which Murray finally triumphed 6-2, the match lasting almost 5 hours.
Murray has certainly enjoyed the most successful year any British player has enjoyed since the far-off days of Perry, this victory being the icing on the cake of a year which has seen him reach the Wimbledon final and win the Olympic title. Those who doubted that he had the mental strength to ever win a Grand Slam title, including me, have been silenced. Now that this particular dragon has been slain, what price Murray to win the end-of-season 'Tour Finals' and to add a second Grand Slam title in Australia in January ? One can only wonder what the media coverage will be like at Wimbledon next June.
The only slight sour note is the continuing nationalistic element in Murray's progress as his Scottishness rather than his Britishness is repeatedly emphasised by the likes of Alex Salmond. Murray himself has, of course, alienated some in the past by his insistence that he is Scottish and not British, though such remarks no longer seem to be part of his own public vocabulary; nonetheless, he might be well advised to work harder on his image if he really wants to win the hearts of the Nation.
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