THE BEST OF British
As Andy Murray begins his bid for a second Wimbledon title, we assess how he ranks among...
REWIND four years and Andy Murray was a fortnight away from his first Wimbledon men’s singles final, a match that ended in defeat by Roger Federer. Murray was still without a Slam to his name and still prompting questions over whether he had been deeply unlucky to emerge in the greatest era his sport has known.
Yet precisely four weeks later in that glorious Olympic summer of 2012, on Sunday, August 5, Murray dismantled the same opponent on the same stage, Centre Court, by a staggering scoreline of 6-2, 6-1, 6-4. In doing so, he won an Olympic gold medal for Great Britain and put himself on track to being a great sporting Briton.
That gold was rapidly followed by a first Slam title at the 2012 US Open, then in 2013 by the Wimbledon title itself, yet more Slam finals and then by Davis Cup glory in 2015. The British wait for that was 79 years.
This month, in reaching the final of the French Open, Murray became only the 10th man of any nationality to appear at least once in the final of every Slam singles event.
If this, on the eve of Wimbledon 2016 and in the run-up to Murray’s Olympic defence, is all starting to stack up as a significant body of hard sporting achievement, it is also worth noting that the Briton has also made hard-earned strides in the nation’s affections.
Not that he would give a stuff, because he cares about winning above all. But he is the only non-Englishman ever to win the Sports Personality of the Year award more than once and, in its 52-year history, is only the fourth person to win it twice. Henry Cooper, Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill were the others.
All of which stirs that most feverish but enjoyable of debates about Murray’s place in Britain’s sporting pantheon. Is he even a contender? If so, in what company?
The Mail on Sunday presents a list of such sportsmen in whose company Murray can comfortably fit, measured by three key criteria: achievements at world level, the standing of their sport internationally (the extent to which is it truly global) and the quality of the era in which they competed.
The 10 including Murray are featured in our accompanying panel. There are strong cases for many more, so some caveats are necessary. This is a list of sportsmen, not sportswomen, who merit at least one other whole debate.
We have a maximum of one representative per sport, itself a legitimate reason for huge argument. Would George Best and Denis Law have been worthy footballing contenders alongside our pick of Sir Bobby Charlton? Of course. What about Martin Johnson instead of Gareth Edwards? Of course. But the list must be finite.
And there are a host of absentees, from the multiple Olympic goldwinning Sir Chris Hoy, Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Ben Ainslie, to the era-dominant talents of Sir Anthony McCoy, Phil Taylor and Ronnie O’Sullivan. But all of our 10 are judged to be extraordinary sportsmen who have achieved important feats of global substance to gain recognition well beyond these shores.
Murray typically downplays any notion that he is ‘deserving’ of contention among the greatest sporting Britons. ‘It’s an honour if some people think I’m part of that conversation but I don’t think of it that way,’ he told the Mail on Sunday last week. ‘I’m just striving to be the best I can be on the court, to win as much as I can.
‘It’s actually a privilege to be playing on the tour just now and playing the likes of Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic has helped inspire and raise my level. I’ve achieved things that I dreamed about growing up but, now I’m here, I want to push on and be the best I can be.’
Federer remains out in front with the most men’s Slam singles titles (17) with Nadal (14) and Djokovic (12) both inside the top five, all-time. One can only guess at how many more Murray might already have won without them around. He has reached 10 Slam finals and only ever lost in those to Federer and Djokovic.
‘Right now my biggest motivation is to win more Slams,’ he said. ‘I have come very close in the Australian and the French Open, so they are tournaments where I would like to improve. I would also like to get to world No1 as well. I’m enjoying my tennis and playing well right now but I’ll need to keep that consistency and focus for every tournament.’
Murray’s own tennis hero growing up was Andre Agassi, (as his mum Judy explains on page 15). ‘When I first joined the tour, Andre was coming towards the end of his career but he was always really nice to me, looking out for the younger guys,’ said Murray.
Away from tennis, Murray’s all-time sporting hero is Muhammad Ali. ‘I have always been a huge boxing fan and he had an incredible influence on not just sport but the world around him.’ he said. ‘Although his fights were long before I was around, I used to love watching films of them.
‘I’m in a very fortunate position in what I do and that often means I get to meet some really interesting people from all walks of life. I sadly never got the chance to meet Muhammad before his death this year — but I’ll always take inspiration from him.’
In British sport, Murray first nominates a coach rather than a player, as one all-time great.
‘There are so many deserving people out there,’ he said. ‘Sir Alex Ferguson is definitely up there for me. His ability to get results consistently over a number of years was amazing, particularly early on when he had a young and inexperienced squad. It would have been easy for him to keep playing the older, more experienced players.
‘Sir Alex is also a really nice guy and I’ve been lucky enough to meet him a few times. I love asking him about football — and he has plenty of good stories.’
Murray also singles out one of the 10 nominees on our own list. ‘I’m a huge boxing fan, so it would be very tough not to mention Lennox Lewis, the last undisputed heavyweight champion of the world,’ he said.
‘There have been a lot of guys who have come after him but none of those have shown the dominance that he did when he was at his most active — he defeated Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Vitali Klitschko among others.’
Murray, at 29, still has good years ahead of him to build on his own credentials of greatness.
What should not be in doubt is that he has already done enough to become a contender as a British sportsmen for the ages. His fans will hope he can burnish that reputation this summer.
‘MURRAY IS A CONTENDER FOR THE BEST SPORTSMAN IN GB EVER’