Some athletes are never able to get over that final hurdle. Dan Marino, Karl Malone and Ted Williams are all legendary athletes who share this distinction. For these men, and many others, their failures define them as much as their successes. Imagine however, if each of these men had won just one title. How would winning a title have altered the rest of their careers? Would complacency have crept in if they already had that title under their belt? Did their failures ultimately drive them to become some of the best of all time in their respective sports? Andy Murray may be the test case for this exact scenario.
A year on from achieving the ultimate goal of winning the British title, Wimbledon, as a British man, Andy Murray has been, in a word, absent. After undergoing back surgery at the tail end of the 2013 season, he has had a tough go of it so far in 2014. So far this year he has failed to make a final in any of the tournaments he has entered. The highlight of his season has been a semifinal shellacking at the hands of Nadal at the French. For the last 3 or 4 years the weeks following the French Open and leading up to Wimbledon have been the “will he, won’t he” guessing game with the British media concerning Murray. Not so much this time around.
Again, this begs the questions; will, or has, complacency set in for Andy Murray? On one hand the emotional and physical toll Murray had to exert to win this title were as plain to us as Obama’s grey hair progression over a stressful presidency. After such an emotional high a let down, or full breakdown, was always lingering just around the corner.
Though his 2014 has been poor, I’m not ready to hit the panic button. For one thing he is making a conscious effort to combat his current struggles. It took some real gusto to first part ways with his coach Ivan Lendl who helped him win Wimbledon, but to then hire Amelie Mauresmo the French former world number 1 was just flat out ballsy. It is unprecedented for any ATP player, let alone one that resides in the top 10, to hire a female coach. For me though, it’s a signal of intent. It couldn’t have been an easy decision to shake up his camp in the manner he did, but it was better than doing nothing and letting his game slip even further.
No matter what happens for the rest of Andy Murray’s career he will always hold the distinction of being the Brit that won the 2013 Wimbledon. No one can take that away from him. I’m sure he would tell you though that he’s far from done, that he has more than a few Grand Slam victories in his future. It probably doesn’t matter one way or another if he does or he doesn’t. His narrative has been etched in stone. He shouldn’t however, expect the world to wait for him during this honeymoon period. Nadal will still be hitting impossible running defensive forehands that paint the line. The field will still come out geared up in all white. The British public and press will still doubt him if he gets knocked out early. I for one hope he’s up not only up for this Wimbledon, but as well as the continuous grind the awaits him for the next 5+ years on tour.
Quick and Specific Wimbledon Predictions
- Grigor Dimitrov and Stan Wawrinka will both have short Grand Slam runs for the 2nd time in as many tries
- Novak Djokovic will drop 2 or less sets on route to the final
- John Isner will make it to his 2nd career quarterfinal after failing to ever get out of the 2nd round of Wimbledon.
- Ernests Gulbis will make at least 3 controversial statements during a fortnight in which he makes a deep run, which includes another dominant performance over Berdych in the round of 16.
- Nadal will win twice as many breakpoints as anyone else during the tournament
- Milos Raonic will make his 2nd straight quarterfinal by dropping the most aces during the fortnight
- Danny Evan of Great Britain will give David Ferrer a run for his money in the 2nd round, sending the British press into a frenzy before getting smashed in a 5th set. He’ll then go out on a sauced up London bender never to be heard from in a meaningful tennis conversation again.
- In an epic semi final that people will refer back to for the next decade, Andy Murray will get knocked out by Djokovic.
