Serbian world number one Novak Djokovic, who suffered a shock defeat to Sam Querrey in the Wimbledon third round, will not be taking part in the contest, saying he was not feeling “100 percent”.
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Against the cannon-ball serve Milos Raonic on Sunday, the Scot returned with breathtaking skill and picked him off with a dizzying array of dipping and passing shots to win 6-4 7-6 7-6 in two hours and 47 minutes.
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 possible. I’d rather set the bar as high as possible and not quite achieve it. It’s better to try to finish No1 in the world and finish at No2”, he said on Monday.
“So if I am going to win a few slams over the next few years, I am going to have to get better”.
Andy has worked so hard for this success and reaching an 11th Grand Slam final was an incredible achievement and I believe he deserves to have won more than the three he has collected. “I’m very proud with how I’ve handled that over the years”.
“But Novak is still clearly No 1 in the world right now, he is not just going to sort of go away because he has had one bad tournament”.
Murray said he was looking forward to defending the Olympic title he won at the London 2012 Games, when the Rio tournament gets under way on August 6. The day after his victory against Milos Raonic, word came that Murray is highly likely to be no more than a supportive courtside presence when Great Britain face Serbia in their Davis Cup quarter-final this weekend.
And while he reinforced his position in second place, even if he follows up his Wimbledon triumph with victory at the US Open in September, Murray still won’t overhaul the Serb.
“I think before, when I won here, I was motivated by the Slams and my results for the rest of the year showed that”. “I feel, yeah, more content this time”.
And the match just got better as the two players brought each other into a second tiebreak in the third set. Hopefully through to the end of this year and beyond it I can win some more slams.
As Andy Murray headed for the champion’s dinner at the Guildhall for the second time, three years after his first, he finally had time to properly savour the unique joy of owning not only the Wimbledon title, but the love of a nation, as well as his family.
I need to maintain the form I’ve had the last couple of months throughout a whole season, you know, I’ve never done that in my career before.
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“We are a team and whether I’m playing or not I’ll always try to support”. “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”.
