Andy Murray, a British national, won a grand slam singles final in the US Open. A feat that took Great Britain 76 years to accomplish again.
He has been playing tennis since he was a teenager, but only now is he receiving much deserved recognition for his skills.
Critics have not always been nice when talking about Murray. He has in fact been making headlines since his teen years, albeit smaller ones but still notable ones. A winner of the Junior US Open in 2004, he played in the Davis Cup as the youngest Briton ever the following year. Ranking a little over 400 in the world that year, he managed to come down to 64 by the end of it. Having played in the Junior French Open and Junior Wimbledon and not won, he seemed like he was not going to back down.
In 2006, he resorted to a new strategy by splitting with his Coach and adding Brad Gilbert to his team. The former coach of Andy Roddick and under whom, Roddick had won the 2003 US Open. This may have helped him get his first one over a top-ten player, Roddick himself on his way to his only final that year in San Jose. Failing at the French Open and getting injured, he revealed that his bones hadn’t fully grown which caused him to get hurt. He also became only one of two players, in addition to Rafael Nadal, to have defeated Roger Federer that year.
The next three years were a mixture of wins and losses and the infamous injuries. Murray would get to a quarter final and lose against Djokovic, or get to a semi final and lose against Nadal or even get to a final and lose against Federer. He could never quite get over the hill. He was stuck and needed guidance.
Along came Alex Corretja to Murray’s aid, a former professional tennis player from Spain. Corretja was in high demand for coaching at that time and predicted Murray to be “Britain’s greatest tennis player ever.”
“With Andy it was different. I really wanted to help him,” said Corretja in a 2009 interview with the Daily Record UK.
“The good thing with him [Murray] is he’s already No.4 in the world and almost No.3 but still has a lot of room to improve. That’s very important.”
Murray practiced through 2010 and 2011 and it seemed like he was going to make it some time soon. We just couldn’t tell when.
The year 2012 arrived, and it was the Murray’s year. Early on, he made it to the finals in the Australian Open only to be defeated again by Djokovic. He also lost a final to Federer in the Miami Masters tournament.
He became the first male British player to reach the final of Wimbledon in 74 years.
Come the Olympics, he managed to win a gold medal in the singles for tennis, beating Federer in the finals and becoming the first British male to win one in 104 years. Giving the Murray-Federer rivalry a deserved ending.
He glided through to the final in the US Open last Wednesday and won against Djokovic.
He became the first British male to win a grand slam singles final in 76 years and the first Scottish born player to win a grand slam final in 116 years.
He also became the first man ever to win an Olympic gold medal and the US Open in the same year. Murray finally silenced the critics and reached the other side of the hill.
