It took 77 years for a Brit to win the men's Wimbledon title after Fred Perry's Wimbledon championship in 1936. The final game in the third set must have seemed just as long for Andy Murray. After taking a 40 -0 championship advantage in the third set, Novak Djokovic stormed back to take the advantage in the game on multiple occasions. It wasn't until Murray's fourth championship match point that he was able to end eight decades of agony. Perry is now just another footnote in history, but Murray is the Wimbledon champ. David Beckham's Q Score within Britain is likely second to Murray's popularity. If the London Olympics were being held a year later, Murray would be lighting the Olympic cauldron.
Last year, Murray took a two set lead over Djokovic into the third set of the U.S. Open, before the Serbian stormed back. Murray pulled out the win to become the first British man to win a Grand Slam's singles title in 76 years, but it had to be in the back of his mind as Djokovic nearly took the third set to tiebreakers on Sunday. The Open championship was a monumental win, but it wasn't Wimbledon.
Murray's been close to emerging from Wimbledon's Centre Court as the last man standing before. Last year, he won the gold medal on the All-England Club court just a month after falling in the Wimbledon Final to Djokovic and from that point on, a switch turned on in his head. After winning the U.S. Open, Murray skipped the French Open and stayed on grass to train for Wimbledon, but the end of one journey is the beginning of another.
So what's next? Now he can begin to expand his aspirations outside of Britain by shifting his focus to becoming No.1 in the world.
Pretty sure @andy_murray might have to change his twitter name to @sirandymurray …… Well played and deserved!
— andyroddick (@andyroddick) July 7, 2013
