Wimble-DONE: Andy Murray makes history, but the reality is yet to sink in

All that glitters is gold: British champion Andy Murray kisses victory after smashing Novak Djokovic of Serbia during the Men's singles final match at Wimbledon.
Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
19 December 2019

In the months after losing to Roger Federer in last year’s final, Andy Murray would dream in his sleep that the outcome had been very ­different. Each time he woke up, he thought he was Britain’s first male Wimbledon champion since 1936 only to be wrenched back to the stark reality a split second later.

Last night, he was not asleep long enough to have anything on his mind — he slept for just an hour and a half — but this morning woke up to the realisation of having emulated Fred Perry’s feat all those years ago.

This morning, he admitted: “You don’t want to sleep in case you wake up and it didn’t happen.”

As it was, he walked downstairs, woke his dogs up, fed them and had breakfast next to the Wimbledon trophy. The trophy itself was not quite a reality — merely a smaller replica of the one lifted aloft on Centre Court yesterday — but his achievement was most ­certainly a reality.

The next few days will be a blur after beating Novak Djokovic 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 — a scoreline that suggested he had blown the world No1 off court when, in reality, it felt like the balance of the game was just a net cord or double fault away from shifting the game’s momentum.

“I was panicking — if I’d lost that third set it would have been so hard,” he said. “I won Wimbledon yesterday but what does it actually mean? I think that will take longer than 24 hours to sink in and understand it.”

Murray is already getting advice from some of the biggest names in sport on how to deal with the scale of his achievement.

David Beckham and Murray have been exchanging texts for the last 10 days and the former England captain, having just got back from Singapore, called the Scot. “He just said, well done, congratulations and enjoy it,” said Murray.

Sir Alex Ferguson apologised for not being at the final but he sent a message yesterday and this morning. He’s off on a 10-day cruise up the coast of ­Scotland (the former Manchester United manager that is).

“He said to me he always wanted to do that,” said Murray. “Ten days and never done it in his life. He’d never taken 10 days off from his work. Unbelievable work ethic. Spending 15 minutes with him, he’s an impressive guy. You can learn a lot from him.”

Last year, the question had always been when, if ever, would Murray win a Grand Slam. Following his US Open triumph last September that was altered to when his time at Wimbledon would come. Yesterday, it came in emphatic style.

Murray, surrounded by the morning’s papers but insisting he had yet to read them, pointed not to the moment of the Wimbledon loss to Federer 12 months ago as the turning point but the weeks that followed. He said: “The period after Wimbledon last year was really important. It was the hardest loss of my career but I responded really well and I’d not done that in the past when I’d lost Grand Slam tournaments.

“I do not know exactly why that was, whether it was the maturing process or whether those emotions built up inside me released. When I got back on the practice courts I felt really good about my game.”

Past world No1s and world champions are now queuing up to consider how many more Grand Slams would come Murray’s way.

Former world No1 Mats Wilander said: “I think Andy Murray can win six, seven, eight, nine, 10 majors; the only man that can stop him is ­Djokovic.”

John McEnroe was equally positive. “I’d be surprised if he doesn’t win at least six Majors,” said the three-time Wimbledon champion.

Watching Murray and Djokovic pound it out on either side of Centre Court was to witness two players at the top of their game.

In their three sets they slugged it out, sometimes brutally. It was like watching two heavyweight boxers batter each other, slump to the canvas and merely return for more.

To suggest Murray is on the edge of something special would be to denigrate from yesterday’s great achievement but that is the overriding sense moving ahead.

Much has been made of the solitary week that divides the two 26-year-olds at the top of tennis and, at such an age, the sport is theirs to dominate for years to come.

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