ENDGAME FOR ANDY MURRAY ED CURRAN SALUTES THE ‘GREAT AND GALLANT’ STAR
All around him at Wimbledon last year were amazed he even considered playing
On a gloriously sunny afternoon, I was sitting by the side of Court 15 at Wimbledon, watching Andy Murray testing himself to the extreme. Nearby, his coach, trainer and physio were also watching anxiously as he put his body on the line in his final practice before the 2018 championships.
All around, the stars of tennis were doing the same, but for Murray the moment of truth about his physical wellbeing had arrived.
I remember writing for this newspaper that the experience was akin to assessing a thoroughbred racehorse on its final gallop before the Derby, hoping upon hope that it would not pull up lame.
“I hope I did not witness the last of Andy Murray on that near-deserted Court 15, but only he and his body know what the future holds,” I wrote.
From what he said so tearfully in Australia yesterday, it looks now as if this great and gallant Scotsman may never grace the greensward of Wimbledon again, or at least at the level of brilliance he displayed so often to the adulation of the Centre Court.
On that afternoon last July, I remember how driven he was to prove he could still do it. He had deliberately chosen for his final practice the Argentinian Diego Schwartzman, a player with powerful ground strokes, who would stretch Murray from one corner of the court to the other. And so he did.
But on the evidence of this tough hour of hard-hitting tennis, Schwartzman had the edge and the signs were ominous that Murray’s troubles with his hip were far from over.
Still, he put on a brave, smiling face to his coaches that day. An hour later, in the Wimbledon interview room, I asked him about his apparent frustration with some of his shots on Court 15.
“I’d like to be playing better,” he replied, diplomatically. “I haven’t been practising long. I’m competing with the best players in the world and, of course, you notice things that are maybe