Sun, Jan 30, 2011 page18

• A boom or bust final for British tennis’ great hope

  • AFP, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
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  Being feted as the great hope of British tennis means today’s Australian Open final against good friend Novak Djokovic is a genuine boom or bust experience for Andy Murray.

  Win and the 23-year-old will become one of Britain’s biggest sporting heroes, feted for ending their 75-year men’s Grand Slam drought that stretches all the way back to Fred Perry in the 1936 US Open.

  However, lose a third Grand Slam final to his regular practice partner and good friend, and the whispers over Murray’s mental toughness will become a deafening roar.

  

  Britain’s Andy Murray attends a training session in Melbourne yesterday before he appears in the Australian Open men’s singles final today.

  Photo: Reuters

  There is no doubt Murray has the game to win a Grand Slam and he’s shown he’s got more tricks up his sleeve than almost any other player.

  Murray’s trademark running passing shot is the most spectacular in the game and his brilliant ground-strokes dominated last year’s Australian Open highlights reel. The question is whether he has the mental strength to take the final step and become a Grand Slam champion.

  His two previous Grand Slam final appearances have both resulted in straight-sets defeats to Roger Federer, despite being one of the few players to boast a winning career record against the Swiss.

  In both those matches, including last year’s final in Melbourne, Murray started tentatively and he can’t afford to make that mistake against the in-form Djokovic, who won the title in 2008.

  Murray said he was wiser for those losses.

  “It was tough for me, but something that I think overall would have made me a better player, stronger mentally,” he said of last year’s loss to Federer. “You know, they’re all experiences that you need to deal with playing at the highest level of sport. You know, you definitely lose some tough matches. I hope that it will help me on Sunday. I’m sure I’ll deal with everything better than I have done in the past on Sunday.”

  Murray was born in Dunblane, Scotland, and he is a survivor of a tragic school massacre in 1996 that left 15 children and one adult dead. He recalled hiding under his desk to escape the killings, committed by a family acquaintance.

  He treats the media warily, perhaps because of the pressure put on him by the British press, and is sometimes targeted over his hang-dog demeanor.

  However, Murray, who has had Scottish comedian Billy Connolly in his box in Melbourne, is known by those close to him for his dry sense of humor and he’s needed it as the pressure has mounted to finally deliver success to British tennis.

  Murray said he couldn’t afford to be affected by the huge weight of British expectation.

  “First of all, it’s more like a personal dream or a personal goal of mine,” Murray said. “So that’s really what you need to sort of keep in check and not get ahead of yourself.”

  “The historical thing, it’s not something that I’ve thought about that much. I also don’t want to get myself so amped up that I play a stinker of a match,” he said. “If you go in thinking like: ‘No-one’s won for 60 years, I might never get another chance.’ I also need to make sure I’m relaxed and calm on the court. I don’t want to get myself too worked up.”

  Murray knows exactly what to expect to from Djokovic, the pair having first played each other in their early teenage years and developed a genuine friendship.

  “The first time I played him must have been when we were about 13, so it’s been a long time we’ve known each other,” Murray said.

  Djokovic has won four of their seven matches, but Murray has claimed the last three, including the 2008 Cincinnati and 2009 Miami finals.

  Although he’s feted by the British press now, Murray, a proud Scot, hasn’t always enjoyed the best relationship with the London media.

  He once commented that he would support whoever England was playing against in soccer’s World Cup and denied that he took any heart from England’s Ashes cricket win against Australia, but a Murray victory today would cap a memorable spell for British sports fans, with many still basking in the glory of the Ashes triumph, which also broke a decades-long drought.
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