Last night, for the first time, Andy Murray showed the kind of passion which fired up the Wimbledon crowd to an Henmanic-like orgy of nationalistic fervour. I have little doubt he wouldn't have won without their very vocal support.
I suspect I wasn't the only one who stayed in my car during the seemingly endless number of deuces at the end of the first game of the final set, which Murray finally won. Having got home, I didn't dare get out of the car and rush indoors to switch the TV on in case I missed the vital point. It was that game which showed why Andy Murray has a tougher aspect to him than Tim Henman had. Henman would have lost that game.
I find it very difficult to get worked up about tennis nowadays, but last night reminded me of the good old days, when I would get absolutely hooked on tennis for a fortnight to the virtual exclusion of everything else.
45 comments:
Dear Iain,
The only talent that the charmless Murray can lay claim to is low-grade demagoguery. As a tennis player he isn't fit to tie Federer's shoelaces -- let alone walk on ground graced by people with true racquet skills like Laver or McEnroe.
Unlike Henman, who the crowd supported at all times, Murray was only getting a very cool response through the first two sets and most of the third. Poor Gasquet could not have known what was going to hit him after dropping those match points. In my sport the level of aggression shown by Murray would have seen him disqualified in short order.
He won't survive, and will never win anything worth talking about.
Don't know about tennis today - it all seems a bit mechanical perhaps.
I enjoyed this article by Brian Moore. Should I see someone about my condition?
"Andy Murray, the very talented, very surly, Scottish tennis player, now claims his statement that he supported anyone who played against England was a mere bagatelle.
Murray's rationalisation of his former slight appears to have come after he overheard an Englishwoman saying to her friends: "That's that Scottish shit who hates the English."
Perhaps he is shocked that his public declaration against England has not been taken with alacrity. Perhaps he thought the English would adopt their usual stance of accepting any sort of abuse from a Celt, lest they be accused of arrogance and lacking a sense of humour.
If the woman cares to get in touch, I have a chocolate egg for her - it isn't just me that will not accept this insult with a smile. I'd have had more respect for Murray if he had maintained his former stance. He is perfectly entitled to hold that view but we are entitled to dislike him for it.
He should not change it just because someone has been nasty to him. As he chases Wimbledon glory, I wish him all the luck he wishes England."
Yes, but the crowd's treatment of the Frenchman was awful. You don't cheer the other person's mistakes if you have any manners. (Not that Murray himself knows what manners are).
Good news!
Andy Murray can now be described as British.
Though when he eventually loses, he'll go back to just being Scottish...
...I'll admit he is rather charmless.
At least the taxman will be getting something from Scotland at the end of this week.
In his career Henman never managed such a win, in five sets against a top 8 player. He did it against people like Todd Martin, but not people of Gasquet's quality.
However, I think it is worth remembering that Murray has a long way to go to rival Henman's record. For all people may mock Henman, he was a consistant top-five player for more than 5 years, I think.
I wonder if Murray will ever top that.
What we should be asking is - Why does this country produce very few really good Tennis Players who actually have a chance of winning at Wimbledon ? And as a result we are faced with hype over "Tiger Tim" who never fulfilled the hype and a surly Scot - Andy Murray.
Part of the answer lies in our failure to encourage the sport in schools;lack of sponsorship(not just in Tennis - you could say the same about our athletes and swimmers but we'll wait until the howl of media criticism later in the year over our "poor" medal tally before commenting further on that one) the lack of facilities and courts around the country(compare France for example where nearly every village howver small has a tennis court) and our near hysteria over our talentless and overpaid national football team and the reliance of the Premier League on imported players.
So, in summary Murray may be a surly and moody Scot but he's all we've got anywhere near to being a Tennis Champion. - so who else can we support ?
It strikes me as consistently astounding that someone not just with abundant tennis talent but, properly, a winner's attitude – to wit, Andy Murray – should consistently garner such ignorant abuse.
In addition, Brian Moore completely misses the point: Murray was joking with his 'anyone-but-England' comment. Don't be so touchy, Brain.
Incidentally, Gasquet didn't have any match points Kafka. It makes it a little difficult to take you seriously when you make such an elementary blunder. What is your sport, by the way? Knitting?
I am English, incidentally.
kafka, tennis is a gladiatorial sport, with sudden death and humiliation a missed stroke away. Permit young Murray to be a bit emotional/aggressive please.
Murray still makes loads of unforced errors, but when hitting the ball right is as good as anyone. And he moves well around the court.
Against Raffa he will no doubt be outclassed, but his serve is better than Raffa's and more consistent.
Raffa stands face on when serving instead of sideways on, and is too reliant on arm strength.
As a result he has few spin options available, and is vulnerable to a break back once the receiver starts to read him.
Murray should break him more than once.
But if Murray is to win, he has to raise his game and not make so many unforced errors.
He is definitely a dour Scot - not 'English' as MacEnroe briefly called him before correcting himself.
Leave him alone to be who he is, just as we don't want Europeans telling us how we should be.
Go fer-it Andy. Be as Scottish as you are.
Oh yes I agree , its the first time in a long time I have turned to the back page first to gloat.
What interested me was that for all the pleasure one took in a truly mesmerising performance as Murray is a Scot one had the feeling of cheering a friendly neighbour not your own man .
All and any sense of us being a country together is now lost and it is interesting that this paradoxically allows you to admire our Northern Neighbours all the more . The advent of full independence , this tells me , will not sever the cultural links between us but may well reinvigorate them as the bitterness of a long and bitter divorce recedes.
As two countries we have “history” , as one, we have irreconcilable differences . I was therefore disappointed to see that David Cameron is supporting the mendacious fudge on English votes designed top do the bare minimum to placate the English. Just as Labour did with their cote vote Cameron has assumed the is no where else to go so why do more .I had hoped that this sort of cynical calculation might be less in evidence as New Labour reap the harvest of taking their traditional support for granted all this time.
Anyway back to Murray, you can see why we always got the Scots to do out fighting for us !!! Good Luck you dour taciturn glum determined single minded and altogether marvellous Scot. That’s the stuff that built an Empire !!
I suppose Brown will either attend his next round or send him a letter of support. Either way young Murray is doomed.
Murray is an dreadful combination of arrogant yet dull off court, but he showed true determination - not often seen in a British tennis player.
Now Henman - mania I could never understand. Maybe because I am not a mid forties home counties lady?
Maybe that's what turned me off Henman, the rather forced, once a year worshipping of a distinctly average player.
I think he has also shed the cloud from his unfortunate remarks about English football.
They weren't that controversial - how can someone who normally supports the Scottish Football team switch to supporting England just because they are doing well ?
It would be like Iain switching to support Man Utd whenever West Ham were having a rough patch.
But to claim that he would shout for whoever was opposing England was a tad unnecessary - but as a fellow 'grumpy old man', he may be the coming man of British tennis.
Even if he doesn't use the f-word quite enough for my liking...
come forth all the chippy little Englanders.
Murray's problems started when he corrected someone for calling him English. God forbid correcting a simple misstatement of fact should cause such resentment from the English. The man can't even take pride in his nationality without facing the English xenophobia.
His display at the end of the match was frankly weird, and very un-British. Maybe its who he is, but I was far more impressed by the good sportsman ship of his French opponent.
He reminds me of Plug in the Beano!
Andy Murray won not because he was the better player, not because of the cannibalistic frenzy of the crowd, but because was crueller than Gasquet. The key to understanding this is the drop-shot. The drop-shot is not straightforwardly – and boringly – about winning the point; it is an attempt to humiliate one’s opponent. Properly executed it forces one’s opponent to sprint, head-bowed, arm hopelessly outstretched – whilst the dropping player stands nonchalantly on the other side of their net stationary, smiling. The crowd all around bay their delight. The whole thing is an enactment of a certain power relation; the player who suffers the ignominy of being dropped is unmanned.
Bottle that spirit, make our youngsters drink it and we will become a nation of sporting supermen.
To read more of my views go to my blog, Just who the hell are we?, on wordpress.com at:
http://adammcnestrie.wordpress.com/
What is it with you Brits that have to cheer for some pathetic little player like Murray or Henman just because he's British? It's pretty sad to see the BBC presenter saying 'the English no. 1 v the German no. 2'. How many British and German players are there? not many hence why pretty sure if I joint the English team I'll be probably no. 4 or 5. Outside England everyone refers to numbers at global level, Federer world no. 1 v Murray world no. 34578. Another thing, Wimbledon is the only tennis tournament where you get to hear football chanting. It's tennis, concentration is important and makes the game better. What you see as nationalist fervour outside England is seen abroad as stereotypical English, loud and drunk.
Kafka said...
"In my sport the level of aggression shown by Murray would have seen him disqualified in short order."
Your sport is tiddlywinks?
Henman would not have lost that game. he'd have won in four after losing the second. But Murray was indeed magnificent in sets three (last 4 games) to five.
I think he's got the will to win, which is more than could ever be said about Tim. OK he's a grumpy little ****, but he's a teenager so what should we expect?
But as soon as we get English devolution I can go back to disliking him. Remember though that probably means we'll never get another Wimbledon winner. Still such is life.
Maybe he appears 'unbritish' because Scottish people overwhelmingly assert thier idenity in accordance with thier nation of birth, Scotland, as appose to the political state they are a subject of.
PS You can bet if he had been wearing a Union Jack wristband all those years ago he wouldn't have been forced to stop wearing it.
Give the lad a break , he played superb tennis as did Gasquet.
Not everyone can be media savvy and bubbly. He cannot do right for doing wrong, he's not aggressive enough , he's too aggressive etc etc etc.
Its back to what Brits do, knock em down and keep em down.
Lets try raising them up and supporting our "stars"may be we would have a few more
The crowd should hang their heads in shame. Looks like the yob culture has taken over Wimbledon.
Murray is Not representing his country, he is a private person making a lot of money out of a very commercial sport.
Not to worry though, Murray has only one game left to play in this tournament.
I love the fact you lot are repeatedly making reference to Murray's 'surliness'.
It's like you English chaps don't want to support a sportsman unless he's the type that you can take for tea and cucumber sandwiches with Mummy afterwards.
Mmm - here's a newsflash: competing against the best in the world in any sport is a testing business which may necessitate a less than affable facial expression,the uttering a few swear words, and - if defeated - the deployment of a less than sunny disposition in post-match interviews.
The hypocrisy is astonishing when you consider that England's own heroes - Rooney, Terry, Hatton, Tindall, Flintoff etc are boors to a man. No exactly famed for their nice manners.
And why should they be - it's winning that counts. as Sir Alex (another one of ours, bless you) noted after the furore when Rooney went crazy at a ref during England's abject loss to Northern Ireland in recent years - 'do England want players that are happy when they're losing?'
Just admit it - you don't like the fact that the best tennis player the country has got is a Scot who won't adjust his opinions to suit Middle England and doesn't give a tinker's toss about being slagged by the press.
Timmy might have won something of he had some the ole Celtic Fire!
It's not just UK tennis players who are crap, it's most sportsmen.
David Beckham is about equivalent to Tim Henman in natural ability, in achievements and titles won, in technical skill, and in impact on and legacy left to the game.
The only reason why Beckham is more feted than Henman is because Sky overpaid for the right to televise football in the 1990s, and had to market the players as gods in order to justify the prices charged to watch it. A lot of people fell for it, and now pay huge sums of money to watch rapists, racists, alcoholics and vulgarians kick a ball rather ineptly.
I would like Murray to lose because he is Scotch. I've supported him financially all his life, so I don't see why I should support him any more. The government should also whip up a campaign of hate against him for being rich. He'll lose his next match in straight sets I hope.
he's not a teenager. and there were some huge chokes in that last set, he missed an overhead smash that i could have put away. he was pretty fortunate that gasquet tied up.
he'll do no better than henman. henman lacked another gear, murray lacks poise.
Oh no - tennis player shows agression!!! How shocking! What a horrible thing! And a partisan crowd! Thank god we never had that for Henman!!! How shameful. Fortunately the crowd at the French Open is famously neutral when the French are playing. Oh, no, wait a minute...
The bitterness in most of the above comments is almost hilarious, if it wasn't so sad. You appear not be able to bear that fact that Murray showed yesterday why many people in tennis think he has the tempremant to win a grand slam tournament. Henman was a good player. Murray has the real aggression and drive necessary to become a great one - whether he achieves that or not, only time will tell.
You can hate him all you like in your petty miserable nationalistic way. The rest of us will enjoy some beautiful tennis, from a British man who will fight for the win even when the chips are down. You're right Iain - it was a brilliant, classic, match.
Give the lad a break , he played superb tennis as did Gasquet.
Quite so I like him. He is miserable , surly and quite magnificent.PG Wodehouse would have warmed to him immediately...come on what a game
I don't like Murray because he is a nationalist. I didn't like Henman because he was unsound on the pound. I rejoice every time they lose.
Tennis is not serious amnyway. It is a girl's game. We didn't play it at my school.
I dont like him. I do not like the way he acts on the court, and he has rejected being british. and looks likes a spoilt brat.
His game has improved though
It was simply an amazing match!!!
Small minded as ever, all I could think of was 'will a win help or hurt Gordon?'
Put him on Viagra.
Thats the only way Murray will get past a semi.
Tennis is slightly less boring than Formula 1, and a lot less boring than water skiing, but that's all I can say in its favour. Verification word: Orzdy (ranked 68th in the Albanian men's rankings, I believe.)
Many have short memories comparing Murray's temperament to Henman's. Several years ago Henman blew up on court and smashed a tennis ball right in to the side of the head of a ball girl. He really had to apologise profusely and grovel to the fans and the media.
Murray has never done anything like that.
Murray must be over the moon that Richard Gasquet was beaten by a partisan crowd.
The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club must be scratching it's arse.
"As a tennis player he isn't fit to tie Federer's shoelaces..."
Strange then that they've played three times, and Murray leads 2-1 (the loss when he was 18).
"Federer world no. 1 v Murray world no. 34578"
He's ranked 11 actually, and will be 8-10 next week. That's including missing half of last season too - by the end of the year, when the missed tournaments are erased, he'll likely be about 5th.
Amusing how people who clearly watch nothing outside Wimbledon feel free to pass judgement on the entire tennis year.
Phil said...
"but he's a teenager so what should we expect?"
He acts like a spoilt teenager but in fact he is now 21.
Anybody but Murray. I'm not supporting that Scottish racist gobsh*te. If anything he's the 'thick' aspect of 'what it is tae be Scottish' (ie) agressive, thick, arrogant,loudmouthed, and (of course) hates the English). Naturally, the other aspect of Murray's Scottishness is cowardice- the PR men have got hold of him and now he's BRITISH! All the papers up in Scotland have the idiot on 't front pages with the Union Jack in the background. That sums up the Jocks- 'British' when it suits.
One of the reasons Britain does not produce more good Tennis players is because most people think Tennis is something that only happens once a year at Wimbledon and is not infact a sporting event but a popularity contest.
and by the way, thanks for all those patronising clips of Scottish sporting successes from BBC Sport. When will we consider him a tennis player first?
I said:-
I would like Murray to lose because he is Scotch....He'll lose his next match in straight sets I hope.
And he did. Excellent!
Anonymous July 02, 2008 10:15 AM said...
"One of the reasons Britain does not produce more good Tennis players is because most people think Tennis is something that only happens once a year at Wimbledon and is not infact a sporting event but a popularity contest."
And another reason is that in England tennis is mostly seen as something for pooftahs from private schools. And girls with repellant aristo accents. And uppity English-hating Jocks with attitude problems.
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