Andy Murray announces retirement, leaving behind lot of unfinished stories
If you ever wonder about a term that we most often use in the world of sports ‘so near yet so far’ and what does it mean? There is no better example than the story of former British & World #1 Andy Murray and his tennis career.
He was always counted among the elite, one of the top dogs of tennis alongside Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal & Novak Djokovic as we all waited year after year in anticipation, that maybe this would be Murray’s breakthrough year in the exact similar manner as we agonizingly waited for the last 20 months hoping Andy, coming back from his hip injury will return to where he belongs.
But, unfortunately for Murray and his fans, neither of it happened as he announced his retirement from the game by the end of this year’s Wimbledon, provided his body can go through the toll for six more months. In fact, the Australian Open which is starting next week can bring down curtains on his long career if his hip condition worsens and neither are we surprised nor shocked by his decision of calling it quits. It’s just sad to see a player like Andy Murray walk into the sunset with numbers & results barely giving any justice to the amount of talent he possessed.
If we would like to describe Andy Murray’s career story in just a few words, I guess we could say a guy who always lacked that knockout punch when it was needed the most. His numbers in Grand Slam finals are utter frustrating if you are an Andy fan.
He just won three out of eleven Grand Slam finals and lost as many as five finals at the Australian Open, coming so close so many times, yet falling agonizingly short. In spite of his immense potential, may be, he was just not good enough as we thought or may be he was a curious case of being a right person at wrong time as more often than he had to share the courts along with the greatest players of his generation.
May be Murray could have created more headlines than he actually did, but now it’s time to reflect back on glorious moments of his career as he prepares himself to enter into the final leg of his career. If you ever have to pick a career-defining moment of Murray’s career, it surely has to be on that day, 7 July 2013, when, on a beautiful summer’s afternoon, local favorite Murray toppled Djokovic in straight sets to lay his hands for the first time ever on that Wimbledon trophy.
His win was thoroughly special as his dominant victory ended Britain’s 77-year long wait for men’s Wimbledon championship and avenged for his loss in the previous year’s final against Federer. Apart from his US Open title in 2012, which was by the way his first Grand Slam win and his second Wimbledon title in 2016, Murray and Brits can be extremely proud of his twin Olympic gold medals in men’s singles, one in 2012 in front of his home crowd at London Olympics and one in 2016 in Rio when he won his second Olympic gold.
Might be the Olympic gold medal is not as important in Tennis as compared to say other sports, but neither Roger Federer nor Novak Djokovic have won an Olympic singles gold and Murray’s twin Olympic singles gold certainly are the shining stars of his career.
Expecting Murray to win one more title or potentially Wimbledon in front of his home crowd for one last time can be asking way too much from him, but let’s hope we can at least witness some vintage Murray before he finally hangs up his boots either by the end of this year’s Wimbledon or if injury forces him into early retirement.
