Andy Murray silences his critics again, this time for good, with Wimbledon victory

Andy Murray posing with his long-cherished trophy

If you’re an Andy Murray fan, your first reaction on seeing Murray win the Wimbledon final against Novak Djokovic today was probably not of joy or relief. No; the first thing that probably came to your mind as Murray sank to the grass after winning championship point was, “All of his doubters can now take a hike!”

That’s how it always has been with Murray, and likely how it always will be. The air of negativity, of vindictiveness, of painful cussedness will never leave him or his game, and will keep casting a pall of darkness over everything that he does. When he loses, he takes everyone down with him as he spirals into a morose well of manic self-deprecation. And when he wins, he makes everyone want to hurl abuses – either at him if you don’t support him, or with him if you do.

Despite all the darkness constantly surrounding him though, Murray had – quite literally – his day in the sun today. Under the bright skies on Centre Court today, Murray put paid to the idea that he doesn’t belong in the vaunted group called the ‘Big 4′. And if you think his constant struggles with his inner self or his predisposition towards playing ‘reactive’ tennis is in any way a knock on him as a player, I’d like to see you try telling that to the scores of Brits jumping up and down in celebration right now.

It was a wait that lasted 77 years, and you might even be tempted to think that every moment of that wait was relished by those suffering it. There always seemed to be a perverse joy in the words of the British journalists as they bemoaned the inability of their homegrown players to triumph at Wimbledon. Both the joy and the suffering were, of course, magnified in the case of Murray. Every word that he spoke, every move that he made, every shot that he hit, was analyzed and dissected with an enthusiasm bordering on the obsessive, even if the dissectors didn’t always like what they saw. It was always a party when Murray took to his yearly routine of trying to win Wimbledon; a party filled with laments and doleful sighs, but a party nevertheless.

All of that has changed now, of course. By putting on a dazzlingly emphatic performance on the biggest stage in the world of tennis, Murray has in one swift stroke eliminated the biggest storyline that has dominated the sport in the last few years. The ghost of Fred Perry may still haunt him at the Australian and French Opens, but from now on, it will likely be a friendly wisp of smoke rather than a chillingly terrifying spectre.

Should we have seen this coming? Murray had been the best player in the world during the second half of the season last year, a half played predominantly on fast courts. He had come into this tournament on the back of another triumph at Queen’s, and his dismantling of Roger Federer in the Olympics gold medal match, his last best-of-five sets match on grass, was still fresh in everyone’s minds. Djokovic, on the other, hand, moves worse on grass than he does on any other surface, and was probably still recovering from his marathon semifinal match against Juan Martin del Potro, not to mention the mental after-effects of his crushing loss to Rafael Nadal at the French Open. Why did we consider Djokovic as the favourite before the match began, then?

Probably because nothing about Murray is ever as straightforward as it seems. He doesn’t defeat you with outright power or relentless aggression or finesse at the net (although he is certainly capable of that last part). Instead, he defeats you by drawing you out of your comfort zone and making you play the game on his terms, which always makes proclaiming him as the favourite to win anything a bit of an iffy proposition. Occasionally, he will blast a crosscourt forehand or launch a rocket first serve to make you think twice about the whole ‘doesn’t-defeat-you-with-power’ idea. But immediately after that he will revert to his steady, subtle changes of pace and nifty sliced backhands, and the opponent will be tied up in knots for no discernible reason.

Djokovic did have a bit of an off-day today, specially with his serve and forehand. But even if his forehand had been clicking, it is hard to imagine him gaining too much traction in the forehand-to-forehand exchanges – that’s how good Murray’s crosscourt forehand has become. The Scot brought a world of pain on Djokovic with his sharply-angled, laser crosscourt forehands, and after a point I actually started wondering why this shot was ever considered Murray’s weakness. His down-the-line and inside-out forehands still need a bit of work, but on a fast court, his crosscourt forehand may actually be among the best in the world right now. For a player whose forehand has been derided for much of his career, that is saying something.