This may not have been the best Wimbledon final ever, but it was surely the most brutal. It may not have been the most dramatic, but it certainly was the most historic. After 77 years, Andy Murray won a title last won by a Briton in 1936 and in sensational style.
Seeded to meet in the final, Novak Djokovic and Murray duly obliged. Djokovic, the world number 1 and generally acknowledged to be the best male player around today, was probably a very narrow favourite but, when it comes to such occasions, being the bookies favourite often counts for nothing.
Experts seemed unanimous in their view that the match would go the distance and a point here and there would decide it. In the end, the match lasted only 3 sets but almost 3¼ hours as these two titans of tennis slugged it out. Sometimes the tennis reached previously unexplored heights and sometimes it was almost down to earth; sometimes the momentum swung one way and sometimes it swung the other. Even when Murray had 3 match points on his final service game, Djokovic refused to surrender, brought the score back to deuce and threatened to spoil the party by getting close to breaking serve. In the end, the gracious and noble Serb simply couldn't withstand Murray and the tidal wave of support behind him.
No one thought this would end with such an apparently comfortable score, but 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 simply doesn't tell the story. For once, the British summer arrived at the right time and temperatures on court soared into the 80s and beyond. The expectation on Murray was immense and must have added enormously to the pressure, but Djokovic had to cope with a hugely partisan crowd, so perhaps these factors cancelled out. The result was a gruelling match of long points and long games, won by the man who turned out to be the best on the day and who had the inspirational assistance of Ivan Lendl behind him.
Andy Murray, Wimbledon Champion !!
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