He WILL win at least one Grand Slam!
NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 10: Andy Murray of Great Britain reacts during his men
Roger Federer believed he could. The media believed he could. Britain hoped he would. Two months back, it seemed like the only person in the world who believed Andy Murray could not win a Grand Slam was Andy Murray. Now, he doesn’t have to believe he can.
Now, Andy Murray knows he can.
In January, he decided he needed to get something else into his game if he was to challenge the stranglehold of the top three. Clearly, his mum, as a coach, could not offer him more than just support. And the person he brought into his team was someone who had truckloads of a quality he desperately needed – mental strength. The stoic, emotionless, cold face of Ivan Lendl watched on as his new employer almost made it to the Australian Open final.
Performing at home, under immense pressure, he ran out of gas at the last hurdle. The resilience of Federer and the weight of expectations of an entire nation made Andy succumb on the home stretch. He now stood at par with that man in his box, Lendl, having lost his first four finals. He was getting closer each time but after this particular loss, he looked like he had hit rock bottom. It would require great strength of the mind to gather oneself after such a fall. Lendl was there to help Andy find it. The good part about rock-bottom is that there is only one place to go from there.
In the Olympics, just a month after that loss in Wimbledon, he defeated Djokovic in the semis and Federer in the finals in straight sets, in a ridiculously one-sided match. A gold medal in the pocket, the North American hard-courts beckoned. Progress in the early rounds was routine. In the semi-finals, in windy conditions, he tamed Berdych. In the final was a familiar foe. Djokovic and Andy go back to when they were eleven, playing in the juniors in Europe. They know each other inside out. But this was no junior tournament. When they faced-off last time in a major, Djokovic won in straight sets. This time it was different. Djokovic knew that. This was as big as it gets.
In his fifth final, Lendl came from two sets to love down to defeat John McEnroe at the French Open. That was McEnroe’s first loss of that year and a loss he recollects woefully to this day. Monday afternoon in Flushing Meadows, Lendl saw Murray go up two sets to love in his fifth final. Then Djokovic came back roaring to level the match. We had a fifth set. And Murray was in danger of committing a reverse-Lendl.
It was shabby match. Making lesser errors was the strategy. But it was a competitive match. Djokovic bruised his knees in the fourth set. Both players were wobbling between points. The wind was making any kind of shot selection a risky endeavor. Both players struggled with the conditions horribly. Yet, for four hours, they managed to hang in there.
In the fifth set many would have picked Djokovic, having come from two sets down, to make it through. He was certainly the fitter and stronger player. But something in the Serb’s game snapped and it snapped ugly. Two breaks of serve down, and Murray to serve for the match, he had to call for a trainer, inciting boos from the crowd. Murray got up and started hitting against the wall, impatiently, eager to get started. This was unfamiliar territory for Murray and more time to think about it was the last thing he needed. But he held himself together to get to match point. Visibly shaking in the awareness of where he was at that moment, he served up a floating serve. Djokovic lined up and crushed a forehand. For an agonizing moment it seemed like it had caught the line. Then from the chair the call came,
“Game Set and Match, Murray”
Exactly 76 years, to the date, of Fred Perry’s last win, here in New York, Britain got a new champion. A faint smile on “iceman” Ivan Lendl’s face during the awards ceremony showed just how brilliant the moment was.