It just is tennis

The success of Jonathan Marray’s joint title in the Wimbledon’s Men’s Doubles, the first time a British player has claimed such an honour since 1936, means one can’t say ‘once again, a British competitor falls down in tennis’.  Like Virginia Wade in the Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee, it is Marray who gives a tennis-lustre to the Diamond year.  Andy Murray, on the other hand, is left to reflect on regrets.

He will have to improve if he is to be a Grand Slam champion like Fred Perry instead of a perennial runner-up like Bunny Austin.  Today, his first service let him down, allowing his opponent, Roger Federer, to attack his second service with vigour.  Federer is clearly a player in decline, though from a stratospherically high base.  Yet he won’t be too bothered, equalling Pete Sampras’ number of Wimbledon title, closing down on Sampras’ record number of weeks as number one in tennis and adding one more to the collection, now at 17, to make him that extra bit untouchable in the history stakes.

When Murray took the first set, breaking Federer’s serve twice, everything looked rosy.  As Federer seemed to tire early in the second set, it was very enticing.  Murray, however, was relying too much on Federer making mistakes (of which he did a lot in the first hour of the match) and when The Greatest Tennis Player Ever™ upped his game, he pulled the Scotsman all over the court.  When the roof came over and Federer could refresh himself and get tips from his coach in that 45 minute breather, he never looked back. 

There was a political battle going on in the posh seats.  Scotland’s First Minister, Alec Salmond, had travelled down to watch the final with a Scotsman in it (as he said, the last time a Scottish player won Wimbledon was 116 years ago, pointedly ignoring the 76 years ago since a British player was champion fact) and so David Cameron had to be out in force, not just to enjoy a tennis match but to also stand up for British interests in the run-up to the make-or-break up of the Union referendum, for, from his perspective, Murray was British.

So another Wimbledon has its major winners etched on the board of champions.  Federer won’t be around forever, but Nadal and Djokovic are of a similar age to Murray and, injuries aside, will not be departing the tennis scene anytime soon.  There’s still Olympic Gold and the US Open at Flushing Meadows for which Murray can aim this calendar year.  He was quite emotional again as a losing finalist – one can only hope he can pick himself up quickly.