One brick at a time: Andy Murray, from choker to champion

NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 10: Andy Murray of Great Britain speaks to members of the media next to the US Open championship trophy during a press conference after defeating Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the men’s singles finals at the U.S Open.

No Brit had ever won a Grand Slam since 1936, although many British players tried but failed to repeat the feat. When Andy Murray started playing, people had high hopes from this young player until reality struck them. Whenever he lost, he was the Scot who didn’t have it in him to win a Grand Slam and whenever he won, he was a patriotic Brit.

Fast forward to 10 Sep’ 2012 - Andy Murray has defeated Novak Djokovic (the best hardcourt player in the world) in an epic 5-set match: 7-6, 7-5, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2. Who would have thought this possible? John McEnroe had already declared Djokovic as a huge favorite before the finals even started, and so had many others. So then how did this 25-year-old Brit achieve the impossible?

“One brick at a time” - that’s what I have always believed in. And today’s victory reaffirms my belief. After being labeled as the best talent to have never won a single Grand Slam, here he is standing tall and proud with his first US Open title. It all started when he hired Ivan Lendl as his coach. That was the first brick towards his goal. Lendl turned Andy Murray from boy to man. Murray’s Australian Open semi-final  loss in 5 sets was just the beginning of the process of making the diamond shine even in the darkest of moments. Match by match, Lendl started to work on the mental aspect of his prodigy, urging him to go for his shots and become the aggressor in matches.

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm” - Winston Churchill. And that’s what became evident in the matches Andy played. Voila, he reached his first Grand Slam final of the year and everything changed for him that day. The world saw an emotional teary-eyed Andy in the speech ceremony. He fought hard, he tried and he cried in front of his home crowd, which showed how much playing in the finals meant to him.

From that moment, we saw a different Murray, who two weeks later stepped on the same court to start his crusade of attaining the first major feat of his career: an Olympic gold. The manner in which he did it surprised many, as he defeated Roger Federer, arguably the greatest player  in tennis history, in straight sets.  Federer said afterwards that Andy Murray had this coming since long.

It was not just another gold medal for Murray; it was a testimony to the hard struggle he had to go through to reach that stage. It was a moment which made him believe in himself more than ever. It was a gold medal which took off the tremendous pressure from his shoulders as the lone Brit trying to do the impossible.

The result of the Olympic gold was evident, as it propelled him to reach his 5th Grand Slam final. This time, history was to be repeated today. Lendl won his first Grand Slam in his 5th final, and so did Andy Murray. From choker to the winner of a Grand Slam, Andy Murray relived his coach’s life right in front of his eyes.

The biggest lesson for me from Andy Murray’s victory is the way he has ascended the stairs to achieve his dream. It’s not a Cinderella story by any means. It’s the story of a man who has worked hard enough to encounter failures over and over again, which only made him stronger than before, and work even harder to achieve his dream. In adversity, the true character gets built and that’s what he has shown to us. He has been able to achieve his dream by taking small steps one by one  after years of hardships. 4 Grand Slam finals losses, 10 years of hardships, always being criticized by media and people, disappointments and disappointments over and over again.

There are moments in our life when we think it’s not possible to overcome destiny or to overcome the obstacles we face or to overcome the repeated failures that we have encountered. What we do is blame others for the outcome and stop trying.  Imagine if in the presence of Federer, Nadal & Djokovic, Andy Murray had given up his hopes, dreams, ambition. There’s a lesson here for all of us: instead of getting discouraged by the obstacles, we should break down our goals into small steps, toughen up mentally to show our true potential and refrain from getting bogged down by others.

Ivan Lendl, training, Wimbledon final, Olympic gold and now today, after 4 hours and 54 minutes of battle, US Open Champion – Andy Murray.