For a man carrying the weight of his nation’s Wimbledon hopes on his shoulders, Andy Murray cut a relaxed figure as he completed round after round of media interviews on Saturday.
Then again, the 24-year-old Briton will only be flying the flag for a country with a population of 60 million or so when he steps on court to begin his latest quest for his first grand slam title today.
Li Na, on the other hand, had a significant percentage of China’s 1.3 billion inhabitants glued to screens when she won the French Open earlier this month to become her country’s first grand slam singles champion.
Murray, therefore, was quick to spin a question on its head when asked if the 29-year-old Li could learn anything from the way he manages the annual Wimbledon hyperbole.
“Well, she’s won a slam, so I should be the one asking her for the advice,” Murray told reporters.
Murray is once again saddled with burying the tired old statistic that Britain has not produced a male grand slam singles champion since 1936 and, once again, home hopes are soaring after his impressive run to the semi-finals of the French Open and the title at Queen’s Club.
The three grand slam finals Murray has played (two in Australia and one at Flushing Meadows) have all ended in bitter disappointment, but he knows that, like a golfer continually putting himself into contention in the fourth round of a major, all he can do is keep giving himself chances.
“You need to play your best at the end of the tournament, that’s for sure,” Murray said.
“That’s what I work towards. That’s why I play tennis now, to give myself a chance to win these tournaments and be competing for them each time I play in them,” he said. “It’s a great feeling to get to the latter stages of them, but it’s tough when you just fall short. That keeps giving me the motivation to keep doing the training and working hard to do it.”
Murray is the odd one out in the world’s top four as the only one without a major on his CV, but 16-time grand slam champion Roger Federer is in no doubt that he is too good a player for that glaring omission not to be rectified soon.
“To me, I think he’s way good enough to win a grand slam,” Federer said on Saturday. “To me it’s just a matter of time. He’s again in great shape.”
“Now he’s got the perfect preparation for Wimbledon, so it’s all good. I’m excited to see how he goes,” Federer said.
Murray begins with a first-round against Daniel Gimeno-Traver, but British media are already looking ahead to a repeat of last year’s semi-final against the rather more illustrious Spaniard Rafael Nadal.
“I’m not looking anywhere past the first match,” said Murray, who will be working with his Australian coach Darren Cahill.
“It’s not worth it. There’s tough matches everywhere, as you would have seen last year watching this tournament,” Murray said.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB