IT’S JUST ACE!
Andy’s comeback win after hip op that saved career ‘one of the best’
IT is a victory that surely ranks among the many extraordinary achievements Sir Andy Murray has racked up in his career.
Nine months on from when he tearfully announced he could be forced to retire from tennis due to injury, Sir Andy has won the European Open in Antwerp, Belgium.
The 32-year-old Scot defeated fellow former Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka 3-6 6-4 6-4 in a match that lasted two hours and 26 minutes.
Former world number one Murray, who had hip re-surfacing surgery in January in a bid to salvage his career, seemed down and out when he faced two break points in the second set.
He was also twice down a break in the decider but his determination and skill saw him battle on to win.
Following the victory, Sir Andy, whose wife Kim is expecting their third child, said: ‘Obviously it means a lot. The last few years have been extremely difficult, both me and Stan have had a lot of injury problems.’
Appearing close to tears, he added: ‘It’s amazing to be back playing him in a final. I think it was a great match, Stan was playing unbelievable, hitting winners from all over the court.
‘I just managed to hang in a bit at the end of the second set and the third set was extremely close again. I didn’t expect to be in this position so I’m very happy. This is one of the biggest wins that I’ve had after everything.’
Wawrinka, who has also had a number of recent injury issues, said: ‘To see you back at this level, it’s amazing.
‘I’m sad I lost today but I’m really happy to see you back.’
Brother Jamie had to censor his own words in order to express his joy, tweeting: ‘Andy ******* Murray !!!! ’
Mother Judy, 60, posted a message on social media inquiring about what celebrations would follow the win. Copying in son Andy’s own Twitter account and that of the Lawn Tennis Association, she wrote: ‘Any highland flinging this afternoon?’ She also posted a photo of her with a glass of bubbly, captioned: ‘Cheers’.
Dunblane Primary School, in Perthshire, which Sir Andy and Jamie both attended, also posted a tweet saying: ‘We are so proud of our champion @ andy_murray. He is an inspiration to us all. #NeverGiveUp.’
Nicola Sturgeon, meanwhile, tweeted: ‘The Comeback King. Well done.’
‘Amazing to be back in a final’
A TEARFUL Andy Murray yesterday continued his remarkable comeback from injury by claiming his first ATP Tour title for more than two-and-ahalf years at the European Open.
In just his sixth singles tournament since returning from the hip resurfacing operation he underwent in January, the Scot had significantly exceeded
ANDY MURRAY may have had his hip covered in metal, but nobody ever suggested his mentality needed any resurfacing.
Marrying a cussedness that has survived two serious operations with copious skill and astonishing mobility, he is a champion once again on the ATP Tour.
Nine months after those tears in Melbourne, the hastily assembled farewell video tributes from other players that now need deleting, he took the European Open title in Antwerp by edging out fellow former Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka.
It was the day that was never meant to come, but these two players lit up this drab suburb in the world’s diamond capital with a final that recalled their glory days.
This was not, emphatically, a pale imitation of the Wawrinka who in the middle of the decade gatecrashed the group once known as the Big Four. He played a high-class match in losing 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 over two hours and 26 minutes of pulsating exchanges but just could not put the twice Wimbledon champion away.
Small wonder that hip surgeons are reporting patients coming in and asking, ‘I’ll have an Andy Murray please.’
At the end of it all the 32 yearold Scot turned to his support bench, at whom he had been chirping away through this late afternoon, with a look of utter disbelief. He then went to his chair and put his head in his hands, his heaving chest betraying overwhelming emotion.
‘It’s one of the biggest wins I’ve had after everything, I don’t think any of us expected this,’ Murray said to the packed crowd at the SportPaleis, nestled by the side of the noisy autoroute that leads to Ghent, where four years ago he led Great Britain to Davis Cup triumph.
In its own way, yesterday was of similar magnitude. This was barely six months on from when he first hobbled back onto court at his local tennis club to hit balls against a wall. It was less than four months beyond his return as a doubles specialist, and the now largely-forgotten ‘dream team’ partnership with Serena Williams at Wimbledon.
Murray enjoyed it all well enough but he knew nothing could match the satisfaction of giving vent to his competitive urges by doing it in singles again. That has now happened, and he winds up his regular tour season with a ranking nominally inside the world’s top 130. In reality he looks much closer to the world’s top ten.
It has been an amazing effort by him and his team, who will know his constant chuntering and gesturing at them during matches is a case of hurting the ones you love.
And so he heads home today to have a break before next month’s Davis Cup finals — and to spend time with his heavily pregnant wife Kim — with his 46th, and arguably least likely, career ATP title in his kitbag.
Among the many astonishing aspects to this achievement was that it came at the end of four tournaments in four weeks across two continents, a gruelling stint designed to give him an indication of where his body was at.
‘I didn’t feel prepared to win as I wasn’t expecting it, if that makes sense,’ he said later. ‘Stan could have won, I was getting bullied and there were winners coming from everywhere. I just found a way. There were lots of reasons for me to be emotional at the end. The last two years were hard. I need to start talking more about my future, and I am a lot more optimistic now than I was a couple of months ago.
‘When I spoke to my team about the trip to Asia I said I just want to be competitive, that I’m not feeling I’m getting smashed by other guys, so I am surprised. It has happened quicker than I thought.’
During the visit to China he beat world No13 Matteo Berrettini, although Wawrinka at No18 is a more significant scalp because of his pedigree and superior form coming into the match. He was, in some ways, an opponent who brought things full circle as he
was on the other side of the net in the last big match Murray played — the 2017 French Open semi-final — before it became apparent shortly afterwards that he had serious hip issues.
He won their meeting in Paris and looked like he would win again yesterday, having two points for a double break and 4-1 in the second set, which Murray saved with two penetrating serves.
Down a break twice in the decider, he got back level for 3-3 and then nicked it with a last break at 5-4, after saving two more break points. Wawrinka wore an expression towards the end that said: ‘I thought you were done.’ But then we all thought that.