UKC

...for the first time in 79 years.

Excellent work by the Murrays. And crucial cameos by others in early rounds.

Done the hard way, away, on their least favourite surface, with a partisan crowd supporting the home players, and under the shadow of a terrorist threat. it would have been easy for the situation to have got to them- Andy does have a tendency to fail to turn up every so often- but in the end it was pretty clinical. Goffin's a solid player, but Andy didn't give him much of a look in.

And what pressure on Andy- in all 4 rounds, he basically had to win both his singles rubbers for them to have a chance- one poor showing, and it would effectively be over. Instead, he won all eight- only 2 others in the history of the tournament have equalled that.

Maybe not on a par with his wimbledon win, but not far behind in my book- and a long way for team GB in a short time! From the wilderness of europe/africa zone group II, to world champions, in 4 years- surely one of the greatest sporting resurrections?

cheers
gregor

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

Sports personality.... Team of the year?

In reply to earlsdonwhu:


Them or England Rugby

Seriously though, that was my thought!

In reply to earlsdonwhu:


yes, they have to be in with a shout....

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

Brilliant performance. Is the SPOTY team award British or international? If the former they should be a shoe in, but if not, then the ABs?

In reply to Postmanpat:

There's two team ones aren't there?

In reply to earlsdonwhu:
i think that's right- and ABs must be in with a shout for the international award- Barcelona could give them a run for their money though- La Liga and Champions' league winners, and with Messi, Neymar and Suarez, possibly the best attacking line up in the history of the game...

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

Been away all weekend, but just seen the highlights and there was some fantastic play there. The point to win the 2nd set today was amazing recovery play by Murray, and match point even more so. Love the fact he never gives up and frequently conjures a winner out a tight corner.

Britain's greatest active sportsman ? Ok he's never been world number one, but he's got a pretty impressive palmares. Maybe Wiggins's is more varied, but Murray has faced greater competition.

Nice to see James Ward there, even if he didn't play in the final. His win over Isner was crucial in that match, given that the US had the Bryan bros in the doubles

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

My undergraduate son and I have shared all of Andy's triumphs and yesterday we met up at a Handball match he was appearing in to watch Andy's singles match on my phone in a sports centre cafe. Thank goodness for 4G. Without ignoring other key contributions, notably from his brother and James Ward, the huge effort Andy has put in to lifting GB to the top of the world cannot be underestimated.

A British Wimbledon champion and Davis Cup triumph inside 3 years is the stuff of my dreams as a a tennis-mad teenager and I have to pinch myself this morning to be reminded it's not all a cruel dream.

In reply to BnB:

From his point of view, it is a pity that he happens to be around with Novak. From viewers /fans view we have been privileged with them and Nadal and Federer.

In reply to earlsdonwhu:

Yes indeed.

In every slam final murrays played, he's faced either djokovic or federer. Federer, nadal, and djokovic have all had finals when they've played against much weaker opposition- Marcos baghdatis and Mariano puerta for example.

It's tough being the 4th best player in an era where the top 3 are possibly the top 3 players of all time. Hopefully he'll get a break and a 'soft' final or two before he's finished, just to even up the odds a bit...

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

You keep on thinking Federer is past it and going to retire soon, but no, he keeps on going. Likewise Nadal and his knees, but although he has had a bad year he has finished it strongly and almost back in the top 4. As for Djokovic - his record and consistency is just incredible (nice to see him congratulating Murray on the win).

The problem is you can only be compared against your peers - so whilst they might be the 3 greatest, it can also be argued that there is no depth in the men game. Though personally, I believe the standard has never been higher, and that applies to most sports

In reply to Chris the Tall:


Anyone who thinks there's no depth, and you don't appear to be one of the doubters, need only look at replays of this year's French Open Final, when the best player in the world, a man who has not only won all the other 3 grand slams this year, but appears currently to be the perfect tennis machine, was utterly blown off court by a 30 year old. This has been an amazing decade for tennis and we are seeing just how magical Federer is to be consistently reaching Grand Slam finals at 34. I'd so love to see him win one more as I'm sure he'd value it even higher than the 17(!) others for the supreme effort he is making. And poor Andy has to hope reaching no 2 in the world gives him a kinder draw than he is used to.

In reply to BnB and chris:

Re the depth issue- its hard to say. The domination of federer, nadal and djokovic (and murray) makes it hard to assess how good the rest are, and how good they are compared to previous years. Are they better than Borg, McEnroe, Lendl? Never mind Connors and laver?

What they do seem to be is consistent and with a longevity unlike anything seen before. And when you look at some of the players that used to get to the latter stages of slams in the past, I don't think they were as good as the 'second tier' of players now- and some of them were the 'top tier'...! (Step forward mr a roddick...)

So overall Murray is unfortunate I think; in another era, even relatively recently, I think he'd have won more slams. But there's always either federer or djokovic waiting there, its never cilic, or wawrinka, when he gets to the big game...