Andy has given up his Wimbledon crown at the quarter final stage this year, and for me he has always suffered a harsh press.
He will be the first to admit he did not play well today, but some credit should be given to his opponent Grigor Dimitrov, who seems to have the ideal game for grass. He reminds me of a young Richard Krajicek.
It maybe some people's disbelief that Murray lost today, that people have again questioned his patronage (maybe jokingly) and his actual tennis ability. These people have short memories, as Murray has actually won Wimbledon, and got to the final the year before that as well, losing to an inspired Roger Federer. Also what shouldn't be forgotten is that he won the Olympics at the All England Club that year as well.
Tennis is a highly demanding sport, and it has been proved in the last 24hours, that anyone within the top 150 can give the top 5/10 players a good game. Has there been as much knashing of teeth in Spain with Rafa's defeat to Kyriakos....I highly doubt it.
Murray's personality does lend itself to criticism, and he is in my view unfairly vilified for this. Not all sportsmen can be characters, and personally I would rather fully support a winner, like Murray, Faldo or Mansell, than characters like Frank Bruno, Paul Gascoigne, who despite their public support did not maximise their undoubted potential.
Let's remember Murray's Grand Slam record, he is a 3 times Australian Open finalist, a two-time French Open semi finalist (in the Nadal era), a US Open winner, and of course a Wimbledon winner. For someone who grew up having to watch Jeremy Bates / Andrew Castle / Mark Petchey occasionally win the odd match, I just wish the British public would get fully behind the best British Tennis player of this, and the last generation.
Chris Clark © 2014 @Chrisclark1975
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