Andy Murray curved through Surbiton on the day Novak Djokovic won his 23rd Grand Slam title in Paris. The town in south-west London, which once belonged to the county of Surrey, is now part of the district of Kingston upon Thames. A few pretty Art Nouveau buildings and a small tennis tournament have given it regional fame; for Murray, whose family of six live in this corner of England, it’s practically on their doorstep. He competed in the Challenger category event, winning the final and the trophy – his first title on grass since his second Wimbledon win in 2016. Then he got behind the wheel and headed north for the next competition.
There is time for meditation in the car, but before melancholy set in, he received a message from his wife Kim, who gave things a different perspective. She’d heard about Djokovic’s record on the Roland Garros clay, she said. She then told her husband how proud she was of him for trudging through the lowlands of second-tier Challenger tournaments with the same attitude, dedication and discipline as always: “That,” Murray reported, “meant a lot to me.” .
It’s been an unusual early English summer for Andy Murray. The 36-year-old embarked on a tour of the province like maybe 20 years ago; and in contrast to his Serbian colleague Djokovic of the same age, who once formed the cup collectors’ gang of the “Big Four” in tennis with Murray, the Swiss Roger Federer and the Spaniard Rafael Nadal, this shows how far the career lines, which ran almost parallel for a while, now Drifting apart.
With metal hip back to position 38 in the world rankings
He would love to be in the position to play Grand Slam titles again, Murray recently admitted in recognition of Djokovic’s phenomenal deeds: “But our journeys have taken different courses.” The starting point could be pinpointed, it was the beginning of his hip problems, “unfortunately, when I was at the peak of my career.”
Because Murray, the Olympic champion in London and Rio de Janeiro, who rose to number one in world tennis in 2016 at the relatively advanced age of 29, soon had to vacate the place in the sun again. In January 2019, he said goodbye to the Australian Open in Melbourne, limping, in pain and tears, and, as he himself and his colleagues believed at the time, basically forever from serious sporting activity of any kind.
He went under the knife and had an artificial right hip put in. When, six months later, he ventured back onto the tennis court and even performed a daredevil jake on the net in front of an astonished audience, the British media sensed a miracle cure that could possibly give hope to the hundred thousand hip sufferers on the island. Murray, rather sober and already one of the most sensible people in the tennis circus, preferred to refer to the special surgical method, a metal surface replacement on the joint.
Open detailed view
One could almost imagine experiencing another moment of pain from Andy Murray; but in truth it’s a moment of happiness after his converted match point in the 2016 Wimbledon final – much to the delight of his British fans.
(Photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP)
Since then, he has regularly picked up the racket without pain. But that special confidence in victory, which is one of the phenomenal strengths of his colleague Djokovic and recently gave him a sense of mission and self-confidence on the Court Philippe-Chatrier in Paris, has been partially lost by Murray during the long period of suffering. He’s been trying to reclaim it this summer, mile after mile on the streets. Now, three victories in the second-tier Challenger tournaments later – first on clay in Aix-en-Provence, then successively on grass in Surbiton and Nottingham – he returns to Wimbledon with a certain composure.
For the past few days he has been training with Djokovic at the All England Club, what he recalls is the first time he has played in a regular tournament (excluding the Laver Cup) since his hip injury. And so he was able to announce: “Where I am today is like day and night compared to then, also from a mental point of view in terms of enjoying the game and the competition. At that time I had the feeling that I was no longer there in a position.”
Of the Big Four, only Murray and Djokovic are still at the Wimbledon tournament
It is part of the irony of sport that the pain-tested Scot, who announced the end of his career in Melbourne four years ago, is now the only one left of the “Big Four” at Wimbledon alongside Djokovic.
When the man with the metal hip intervenes in the tournament on Center Court this Tuesday, for the fourteenth time by the way, he may not be seeded, but as number 38 in the tennis world he is higher than he has been since the operation. His opponent Ryan Peniston, 27, from Southend in Essex, a good 200 places behind him, is an old acquaintance and they train together regularly. The doubts are behind him: “I think I’m one of the best lawn tennis players in the world and I feel good physically too,” said Murray with the realism of a professional athlete who has conquered three gold trophies on this turf over the years, two Sometimes the Wimbledon trophy with the golden pineapple on the lid and once Olympic gold: “There’s no reason why I shouldn’t experience a good tournament here.”
When he won Surbiton in June, he told the audience at the award ceremony what his four children say to him when he leaves for tournaments: Dad, bring a trophy with you! “That rarely happened,” he said. “But now I’ll bring one.” Andy Murray has reached a point in his career where he takes whatever comes with him.
2023-07-03 15:39:40
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