Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
DREAD HOT BRITS
Murray cruises past Brown then backs himself & Konta to make it a British dream double
ANDY MURRAY last night admitted an “amazing” Wimbledon win double was achievable as he urged his fellow Brits to aim higher. Four home players have reached the third round – the best performance for a generation. And there are now two genuine British title contenders, with Johanna Konta joining the defending champion among the favourites after her thrilling win yesterday. Murray, who ended a 77-year wait for a male champion in 2013, disposed of Dustin Brown in three quick sets to allay any lingering fears about his fitness. He then declared he was ready and able to complete a historic hat-trick of wins here. Virginia Wade was the last British female Wimbledon singles winner in 1977 – and the last time Brits held both titles at the same time was in 1934 with Fred Perry and Dorothy Round. The intoxicating mix of home victories and scorching heat led Murray to be asked yesterday if it could happen again in 2017. The Scot, who has answered many questions in his time, said: “I’ve never thought about that, but obviously it’s not impossible for that to happen. “It would be amazing if that was the case. I still say it’s unlikely, but it’s possible. Jo has played extremely well the last 18 months. She’s certainly good enough to win the tournament here. She got through a great match today. “I believe I can have a good run here. I can win, for sure. It’s going to be extremely difficult, but it’s possible. That’s obviously exciting for any tennis fans in the country to have players going deep on both the women’s and the men’s draw at Slams.” The Murray family have fought a battle against the culture of entitled underachievement rife in British tennis. And the Olympic champion, who faces Fabio Fognini next, was definitely not claiming victory after four British singles players won second-round matches on the same day for the first time in 40 years. “It’s obviously good to have more players in the Slams and winning matches” said Murray. “I know Heather and Jo won. I saw Aljaz won, too. Hopefully we can keep going. “I wouldn’t say this is the target, to get five players into the third round – obviously you want to try to do better than that. Aim as high as you can. ‘‘Why not try to get five, six players into the quarter-finals of Slams? Players like Kyle and Heather and Jo, they’re capable of doing more than that. So let’s aim to try to go further. There is not a problem with falling short of high targets.” For once it was not the male British No.1 putting home fans through the emotional wringer on Centre Court yesterday. Coming on after Konta’s three-hour thriller, he needed
just 96 minutes to beat Brown 6-3 6-2 6-2. The Jamaican-german tried to take advantage of the Scot’s dodgy hip, attempting a drop shot on the first point of the match. It was the first of many. But there is a reason he is world No.97 and he mixed the sublime with the ridiculous – sometimes on the same points. Murray raced through 11 of the last 13 games and did not face a break point. Brown said: “Well, if he has a problem with his hip, I don’t want to play against him when his hip is good. At the end, I just said, ‘Too good’.” Rafa Nadal joined Murray in the third round when he won in straight sets against American Donald Young. There was British success in the men’s doubles, Marcus Willis and Jay Clarke, 18, coming from two sets down to win against Jared Donaldson and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan.