Britain’s Andy Murray clinched a second Wimbledon title and third grand slam crown yesterday when he downed Milos Raonic of Canada 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2).
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Great Britain’s team is therefore set to be led by Kyle Edmund, who became the new British No 2 on Monday at 67 in the rankings, and the squad also includes Dan Evans, James Ward, Jamie Murray and Dom Inglot.
Murray took his third grand slam trophy with a comprehensive and complete victory over Canadian Raonic and put that down to discipline and experience, having been through 10 previous major finals.
Playing in an era when Djokovic, Federer and Rafael Nadal have captured 43 grand slam titles between them, three-times major victor Murray knows that he has his work cut out if he wants to add to his haul.
“You can’t forget what he has done in the last 18 months or so – it has been incredible – so this has been a great tournament for me but if I want to win a few slams over the next few years I am going to have to get better”.
“I’m just really happy I managed to do it again after a lot of tough losses in the latter stages of the slams over the last couple of years”, Murray said.
Murray acknowledges the difficulty of overhauling Djokovic, who has won 17 of their last 20 meetings, but is determined to try to chip away at one of the greatest players in tennis history.
“I was sort of distracted by the Major coming up and my results showed that”.
Mr Cameron posted on his official Twitter account: “Congratulations to @andy_murray on his second #Wimbledon title”.
“I don’t mind failing”, Murray said of his past losses.
Murray, not known for his serving prowess, was the more effective server of the two, with a higher percentage of unreturned serves (34 percent to 26 percent) and a much larger amount of first serve points won (87 percent to 67 percent). I think it’s going in a good direction right now, there’s a few players doing well.
Murray will join them but does not expect to feature as he – like Novak Djokovic – opts to sit out the tie to recover ahead of the Olympic Games and US Open next month.
“Every time you play him, you know he’s going to get more returns back than anyone else, along with Novak”, he concluded.
The 29-year-old will travel with the team to Belgrade though after revealing he feels a responsibility to the team.
“I made the finals of the last five tournaments, I think: here, Queen’s, French [Open], Madrid [Open] and [the Internazionali d’Italia in] Rome”. “Congratulations to Andy. This one’s gonna sting, so I’m gonna make sure, as these courts are green, that I do everything to be back here for another chance”.
“I feel a responsibility”.
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“If I got to Serbia and don’t play, I would still stay and support the team”.
