MURRAY’S LACK OF SELF-PITY IS BIG LESSON FOR HAPLESS DUVAL

DAVID DUVAL was a fine golfer. At the Masters in 2001 he shot a score that would have won the tournament any year bar four. He came second. Tiger Woods won. He won a lot of tournaments when Duval was at his peak. The extent to which this frustration and disappointment contributed to a sudden decline we will never know. Injuries certainly played a part, too — but it cannot have helped. On Thursday at the Open, Duval (right) took so many on the seventh, he lost count. By Friday night he was 13 shots adrift of the field. Some say he should not have accepted the invitation — which he will receive each year until he is 60, because he won at Royal Lytham in 2001. Yet Duval’s struggles contrast sharply with the career of another great individual whose timing was a little off: Andy Murray. Like Duval, he came along at a time of intense competition. Just as Duval was eclipsed by Woods, anyone playing tennis in the same era as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic might be considered to have drawn the short straw. Yet Murray never sees it like that. Never complains, never bemoans his fate. He thinks taking on this trio improved him, inspired him to reach standards he would never have attained otherwise. The absolute absence of self-pity is one of the most impressive aspects of his character. Who knows where Duval’s game might be now, had he been more philosophical, and even appreciative, of his battles with Woods? Not 27 over par, perhaps.