London, Jul 8: Andy Murray wiped out 77 years of pain and hurt as he became the first British man since 1936 to win the men's title at Wimbledon with a 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 victory over world number one Novak Djokovic on Sunday.
Just why Britain had to wait almost eight decades to witness such scenes of unbridled patriotic joy at the spiritual home of lawn tennis was summed up by an astonishing final game when Murray won and lost three match points, leaving 15,000 fans gasping in disbelief.
The pulses were racing even faster as Djokovic displayed his own survival instincts to save three championship points before a wondrous volley winner gave Murray another championship point. This time Djokovic could not deny him and when the Serb dragged a backhand into the net after yet another lengthy exchange, Britons leapt up and Murray tossed his racket to the famous turf.
"That was one of the toughest moments, today was unbelievably tough match," Murray said after fulfilling a lifelong dream of holding aloft the gilded Challenge Cup. "I don't know how I came through the final three points, I'm so glad to do it. I understand how much everyone wanted to see a British winner at Wimbledon and I hope everyone enjoyed it." Murray took three hours and nine minutes to finally lay Fred Perry's ghost at 5.24 local time on Sunday.
The opening salvo of the Centre Court clash lasted 20 strokes as Murray went up 0-40 on the Serb's serve but Djokovic produced staunch defence to stave off his opponent's attacks. The duo did trade breaks in the third and fourth games, with each Murray winner being greeted by a chorus of 15,000 roars.
Second seed Murray got another chance to break to love in the seventh game and this time he pounced as the 2011 champion surrendered his serve by slapping a backhand into the net. A set that initially looked like lasting forever ended exactly on the hour mark as Djokovic whipped a service return wide to give Murray, runner-up to Roger Federer last year, the one-set cushion.
Even when Djokovic slipped and skidded flat on to his stomach while trying to chase down a Murray winner, the six-time Grand Slam champion appeared unfazed as he quickly got back on to his feet to extend his lead to 4-1. But Murray, who trains in the intense Miami heat even on Christmas Day, showed off his iron-man conditioning as he stormed back to level at 4-4.
Murray had the fans roaring when he wrapped up the 69-minute second set with a 125mph thunderbolt ace.
Murray proved that he was seeing the ball like a football as broke in the opening game of the third set, successfully challenging Hawkeye to show that Djokovic's backhand on breakpoint had in fact dropped long. After going ahead 2-0, Murray's mind seemed to go on a walkabout as Djokovic won four games on the trot.
But just when thoughts of last September's US Open final started flashing though the mind of everyone packed on to Centre Court, when Djokovic rallied to win the third and fourth sets, Murray made sure that there would be no repeat.
Hsieh-Peng crowned
Hsieh Su-wei became the first Taiwanese player to win a Grand Slam title when she and Peng Shuai beat Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua 7-6 (7-1), 6-1 in the women’s doubles final late on Saturday.
Andy Murray facts
-Born: Glasgow, Scotland, May 15, 1987.
- A survivor of the 1996 Dunblane School massacre.
-A talented all-round sportsman, he turned down a promising career as a soccer player to focus on tennis, leaving his homeland at age 15 to train in Barcelona.
- He became the first British player since Greg Rusedski in 1997 to make a Grand Slam final when he played the 2008 US?Open final, losing to Roger Federer.
- Made the Australian Open final in 2010, losing to Federer.
- In 2011, he reached the Australian Open final for the second straight year, but lost to Novak Djokovic.
-In 2012, he hired former world number one Ivan Lendl as his coach.
-In 2012, He became the first British man to reach the final at Wimbledon since Bunny Austin in 1938. He lost to Federer.
- A few weeks later, he avenged his loss to Federer when he won the gold medal at the London Olympics.
- In winning the US Open, he became the first British man to win a Grand Slam singles title since Fred Perry won the US Open in 1936.
- He beat Djokovic in an epic five-set US Open final in 2012 to win his first Grand Slam title.
Comments
Add new comment