10 ANDY FACTS
ANDY has broken Fred Perry’s British record of reaching 10 Grand Slam finals.
The 29-year-old Scot surpassed Fred, who held the record since the 1930s, by beating Czech Tomas Berdych in straight sets.
Perry’s prize money for winning Wimbledon in 1936 was £10 – or £640 in today’s money. If Andy wins today, he will get £2 million.
MILLIONAIRE Murray was given an official £450 Wimbledon goodie bag when he arrived at this year’s tournament.
Inside was a branded DVD, an annual, poster and a smartphone charger. He also received a £250 voucher to spend in the club shop, a leather wash-bag, and a pair of theatre tickets to a West End show of his fancy.
SCOTTISH designers have created a special baby ball gown for Andy Murray’s daughter.
Ayrshire-based children’s dress designer Sophistikatie named the frock “Sophia Olivia” in honour of her.
MURRAY is well-known for having knee problems but one of the reasons is that he was born with a bipartite patella, a condition where the kneecap remains as two separate bones instead of fusing together.
SCOTLAND will come to a standstill today with an estimated 1.5 million Scots set to tune in to watch Murray’s match.
Broadcasters expect a record 18 million viewers across Britain will be glued to their TVs to watch the final on BBC. Viewer totals are set to be both Wimbledon’s biggest-ever and Britain’s biggest TV audience for three years.
A peak audience of 17.29 million watched Murray’s 2013 Wimbledon final win.
Wimbledon’s all-time record is the 17.3 million people who tuned in for 1980’s Bjorn Borg versus John McEnroe final.
THE National Grid is braced for a post-match power surge today, as 500,000 kettles are switched on.
Millions more will watch in pubs – with a £70 million sales boost expected as 20% more pints and bottles of wine are downed.
Supermarkets forecast rocketing strawberry, Pimm’s and BBQ sales for armchair fans’ parties.
Asda expects strawberry sales up 30% and Pimm’s sales during Wimbledon to reach 100,000 bottles.
ANDY will step onto Centre Court with the shortest odds for a major final in his career, according to Ladbrokes.
He’s a red-hot 1/4 favourite to win Wimbledon, with Milos Raonic the outsider at 3/1. Despite the odds, one bold fan based in London has already staked £40,000 on his hero, the biggest bet of the tournament to date.
Murraymaniacs are also already lining up to back the Scot to receive a knighthood, with the odds of us hearing ‘arise, Sir Andy’ cut to 4/1 from 10/1.
HARDCORE fans camped two nights from Friday evening for a ground pass to watch on the Murray Mound big screen today.
Thousands more will arrive early this morning to queue for ground passes – but many face being locked out when the queue reaches its 4,000 capacity for Murray Mound. Thousands were locked out from the 2013 final.
ANDY has put his winning ways at this year’s Wimbledon down to a new machine he’s been using in training. The Scot said the Gyrotonic expansion system has kept his back fit and healthy. It uses pulleys and weights to allow people to perform controlled spiralling movements to help keep their joints loose and flexible.
EBAY’S StubHub tickets arm was selling briefs for today at £51,983-a-pair - working out at 149 times the price of a £175 standard face-value ticket.
The last batch of 600 face-value Centre Court tickets for today sold out in 30 seconds.