Just One More Game For Murray To Join Immortals

10/09/2012

Is it the year of Murray? That’s the question going into Andy Murray’s fifth grand slam final. His second at Flushing Meadows. It has been a year of extraordinary highs and lows. His Wimbledon final against Roger Federer in which reached the brink of realising a nation’s dream; of dispelling generations of angst.

Of course he lost.

But then followed the extraordinary high. An Olympic gold medal as past of Team GB. Our greatest team. A win that somehow meant more because it was part of something bigger.

And here Murray goes again. His second grand slam final against Novak Djokovic. The first one didn’t go according to plan. But there is a sense that the Murray of 2012 is a renewed Murray. An Andy Murray more resolved, less brittle.

His coach Ivan Lendl has much to do with that. Lendl himself struggled to finally achieve his goal of a grand slam. But when his first slam did finally arrive. It was all much easier after that.

Lendl is the perfect role model for a tennis player edging ever closer to that ultimate goal of a grand slam. And it goes without saying that opportunities for one of the big four titles in tennis only become less frequent as a career progresses. Even if Murray is still young at 25, and in the shape of his life. Mentally and physically.

And if Murray needed any extra nudging, an extra slice of motivation, it came in the form of two Scottish knights in his post semi-final press conference.

Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Sean Connery stood and posed for pictures and chatted to Murray after the match. Their mere presence seeming to say, you want to be a legend? Win one more game.

It was like a Scottish version of the Avengers. Murray, Connery, Ferguson. It was a strange sight when they assembled.

But that point won’t be lost on Murray. There was a guy who had won countless football titles. European cups. The other guy was James Bond. If you want to be immortal. Just one more game.

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