“The father of one has also enlisted his former coach and tennis legend Ivan Lendl after losing the 2016 French Open final, explaining:” I wanted to work with him again, he’s given me help at these events, and whether it’s 5 percent, 10 percent, 2 percent, he does make a difference to me”. “It will be quite different to the Olympics when it was held here [in London] but I’ve loved being involved in the two Olympics that I’ve been at”. I’m not suggesting this was only for me. He became first British man to win multiple Wimbledon singles titles since Fred Perry in 1935. “It had been so long, I was so relieved that I’d done that”.
Advertisement
LONDON (AP) – Andy Murray’s Wimbledon title allowed him to make a dent Monday in the still-substantial gap in the ATP rankings between him and No. 1 Novak Djokovic, last year’s champion at the All England Club.
Murray started his eleventh Grand Slam final by dropping the first game to Milos Raonic.
The Scot told BBC Sport: “All the guys on the team are great”.
His semi-final win over seven-times Wimbledon champion Roger Federer, from two sets to one down, was a milestone success, while in the last 16 he had battled back from two sets down for the first time in his career to beat Belgian David Goffin. Proving to be a vital match for both players, it was Andy Murray who prevailed.
And while Djokovic now holds three of the four major titles, his shock third round KO at SW19 has convinced the Scot he’s not just playing a game of fruitless catch-up. The Real Madrid man gets an bad lot of criticism for his posturing on the field, but the mantra “you can be arrogant if you can back it up” fits perfectly. “Huge thank you to everyone who came out to support”. You know, I feel like this was sort of more for myself more than anything, and my team as well.
Djokovic’s lead in the rankings is still formidable, however, at almost 5,000 points – a grand slam title earns 2,000 – and if Murray is to overtake the Serbian he knows he will have to do better against him having won just two of their last 15 matches. “It’s a hard challenge”. I don’t think that the human eye can see better than that.
Advertisement
“This one will sting a bit”, he said before facing the world’s media shortly after walking off court. If there were more famous athletes like Murray then the world would be a far better place. I keep plugging away. I’m going to try to find every solution to every issue I may have, things I need to improve, things I need to get better at on a day-to-day basis to give myself that opportunity.
