Is there anything more tedious in sport than people who moan about someone's 'personality'? Probably those who then use this judgement to decide who they are going to support. It's so depressing. I'm no rampant nationalist who dogmatically insists on supporting anyone who is representing our country to the point of fervour, but I do take issue with Brits who actively support our opponents. You don't have to like Murray, you don't even have to actively support Murray, but you must not support his opponent, thereby hoping that our man comes second.
After every big game that Andy Murray is involved in, I ready myself for the various arguments, fights and scraps that I will choose to wade into onto Andy Murray's behalf. But it isn't just on his behalf, it is for every sportsman that feels no compulsion to pander to boring journalists and who do not seek to build for themselves some ego-boosting following that they can then exploit in negotiations for sponsorship.
Novak Djokovic's innocent and polished answers he gives to the press are the most blatantly stage-managed things in the sport of tennis. When it comes to being honest and genuine, Murray wins hands down. If you want dancing monkeys, go to the circus. This is proper sport. Give me sweat over a smile every time.
Andy Murray is concerned with winning. So what if he mumbles his answers back to journalists? So what if he doesn't shave? He's the best tennis player this country has ever had (not interested in those who won Wimbledon in another epoch). I'm more concerned about the guts he shows to pull himself back into a match when it looks like his opponent is taking hold. I judge him by his actions on the court and not in a press conference, his response to a cross court backhand not a question. Not every sportsman can be Muhammad Ali and arrive to each interview with merry rhymes to make everyone giggle.
At this point it should also be made clear that Andy Murray is not the same player he was several years ago. His on-court demeanour is no longer petulant and he has reigned in the sulking and the droopy shoulders. He now stands tall and is undeniably positive in the way he carries himself. If you still believe that 'he doesn't like English people' then I am not going to waste my energies trying to convert you. You are a lost cause as a watcher of sport.
He has still NEVER lost in a grand-slam to a player ranked lower than him. Well, you might say, he'll always lose to one of Federer, Nadal or Djokovic. Except you cannot deny that he is getting closer and closer each time and it is illogical to claim that this improvement and the narrowing of the gap will one day turn results in his favour. Federer is declining as a force and Nadal has his injury worries. Give it a few years - all the minutiae of circumstance that Murray needs to pull it off will one day happen.
Andy Murray is not a bottler. He is world number 4, so he should lose to world number 1, and 2, and 3. So when he pushes the world number 1 to his absolute limit, why would people abuse him? He was expected to lose in straight sets, so anything better than that is a success, even if he still lost in the end.
In the 2007 RWC, New Zealand 'bottled it' when they lost to France by 2 points. Four years later, the same ignorant people abused the All Blacks again for 'bottling it'. They won by 1 point. Andy Murray did not bottle today's match, instead he pushed the best player in the world to the end. The margins in top class sport are so narrow that it may well take four years to turn a two point loss into a one point victory. Murray, like the All Blacks, has the skills and the support and the set-up to narrow the gap.
Finally, if one more person brings up that tired, limp, smug phrase that goes something like, "Andy Murray is Scottish when he loses/wins and British..." - you know the rest - then I think I may lose my mind.
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