FOR

many years those who appreciate Andy Murray’s immense contribution to British sport — not just British tennis — have been countering his detractors with the same message: You’ll miss him when he’s gone.

With Murray’s fitness failing so close to Wimbledon, we may be able to glimpse what that future looks like.

Apart from 2005, when Murray was starting out and Tim Henman coming to the end of his career, it was 1994 when Britain last failed to get a men’s singles player into the second week of Wimbledon.

prior to Murray’s arrival, Henman held his end up gamely, but Murray took British tennis to a new level, and we forget what it was like before. Anyone under the age of 33, roughly, won’t be able to remember the time when British involvement was measured in days, not rounds.

We have grown used to having a British man at the centre of one of the calendar’s main events. If Murray’s fitness levels cannot hold up, the focus falls on Johanna Konta, who appears in even worse shape, and has never made it beyond Wimbledon’s second round.

That is a lot of pressure. Murray has shouldered it alone, without complaint. Miss him when he’s gone? We’ll be bereft.