Tears, triumph and turmoil. Andy Murray has packed plenty of each into his tennis career.
But now the end is close – and may even come next week.
A three-time Grand Slam champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist, ‘Sir Andy’ has taken us from emotional highs to gut-wrenching lows throughout his 14-year career.
Here’s seven times Murray made us laugh, cry – or just feel proud.
Grand Slam final number four for Murray was the big one. Wimbledon. Centre Court. His home crowd. His opponent? SW19 favourite Roger Federer.
Murray was trying to become the first British man since 1936 to win the singles title. Federer had already beaten him in two Grand Slam finals – and Murray hadn’t even won a set.
This time, he won the first. But the rain, the nerves, and Federer’s determination, kicked in and the Swiss won in four sets.
The two hugged. Then Murray stepped up to the mic:
As the crowd gave him a standing ovation, Murray cried.
He said he “felt like I was playing for the nation – and I couldn’t quite do it”.
Murray’s tears moved everyone – and he thinks they earned him the respect of the public.
Two months later, he beat Federer to win Olympic gold. By the end of the year, he was a Grand Slam champion.
Murray wasn’t always popular with the public.
A joke about supporting “whoever England were playing against” at the 2006 World Cup was taken the wrong way by many.
But the tears at Wimbledon and his Olympic success changed perceptions.
There was vocal support for him as he faced Novak Djokovic at the US Open. It was Slam final number five.
Murray won the first two sets but Djokovic forced a decider.
This time the Scot held his nerve. After the disappointment of Wimbledon, it was his time.
Seventy-seven years of hurt. Seventy-seven years since a British man had won the Wimbledon singles title. Murray changed that.
In front of 15,000 fans on Centre Court, and thousands more packed on to Murray Mound (formerly Henman Hill), he battled with Djokovic once again.
It was hot, the battle was fierce – and Murray let three championship points slip from his grasp. Wimbledon gasped.
But this was a different Murray.
Djokovic was beaten, Murray was Wimbledon champion – 77 years of hurt banished to history.
Murray began 2016 by reaching the Australian Open final, where he lost to Djokovic.
He ended it by beating the Serb to replace him at the top of the world rankings and win the season-ending ATP Tour finals.
2016 was Murray’s year.
He became the first player to successfully defend an Olympic singles title. He won nine of his 13 finals. He won Wimbledon again. He won his final 24 matches of the year. He became the first British player to top the world rankings. And he was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year for a record third time – despite wife Kim voting for show jumper Nick Skelton.
“I have been asked about women’s equality,” Murray wrote in 2017, “and I would find it hard to look any of the top female tennis players in the eye if I did not speak my mind.”
Murray has often spoken of the need for equality in sport. He was the first leading male player to hire a female coach – Amelie Mauresmo joining his team in 2014.
Both Murray and Mauresmo were criticised – one male player even sent Murray sexist texts about his coach – but the Scot repeatedly pointed out he had hired her for her experience as a two-time Slam winner.
In a piece for the BBC, Murray said female tennis players made the same sacrifices as men, and when he corrected a journalist’s “casual sexism” at Wimbledon in 2017, a proud mum moment followed:
Whether it was posing with Santa or showing off his fashion sense, Murray mastered Twitter and Instagram.
The Scot took fans behind the scenes of his life on tour: he offered tickets to a fan to watch his first-round match in Melbourne after seeing a post online, he’s answered questions, shared his training sessions and generally been a bit tongue in cheek wherever possible.
Oops.
Following the news that Britain’s Andy Murray plans to retire after this year’s Wimbledon BBC Sport looks back at moments when he shown the lighter side of his character.
| Australian Open 2019 |
|---|
| Venue: Melbourne Park Dates: 14-27 January |
| Coverage: Daily live commentaries on the BBC Sport website, listen to Tennis Breakfast daily from 07:00 GMT on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra and watch highlights on BBC TV and online from 19 January. |
Britain’s Andy Murray says he plans to retire after this year’s Wimbledon but fears next week’s Australian Open could be the final tournament of his career.
The three-time Grand Slam winner, who is struggling to recover from hip surgery, was in tears at a news conference in Melbourne on Friday.
“I’m not sure I’m able to play through the pain for another four or five months,” said the 31-year-old Scot.
“I want to get to Wimbledon and stop but I’m not certain I can do that.”
However, Murray says he still intends to play his Australian Open first-round match against Spanish 22nd seed Roberto Bautista Agut next week.
The former world number one had surgery on his right hip last January and has played 14 matches since returning to the sport last June.
Murray ended his 2018 season in September to spend time working with rehabilitation expert Bill Knowles but still looked short of the required level when he played world number one Novak Djokovic in an open practice match at Melbourne Park on Thursday.
In his news conference – during which he left the room to compose himself before returning – Murray said: “I’m not feeling good, I’ve been struggling for a long time.
“I’ve been in a lot of pain for about 20 months now. I’ve pretty much done everything I could to try and get my hip feeling better and it hasn’t helped loads.
“I’m in a better place than I was six months ago but I’m still in a lot of pain. I can still play to a level, but not a level I have played at.”
Murray was frank in his assessment of his abilities, conceding he is no longer able to perform to the level at which he won the US Open in 2012 and Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016.
He told the world’s media of the agonising pain he is in when playing and says further hip surgery might be needed to ensure he has a better quality of life in retirement.
“The pain is too much really,” said Murray, who is also a two-time Olympic champion. “I need to have an end point because I’m playing with no idea of when the pain will stop.
“I’d like to play until Wimbledon – that’s where I’d like to stop playing – but I’m not certain I’m able to do that.”
Speaking to BBC Sport, he added: “A second surgery is an option. I wouldn’t be taking the option to have a surgery to resurface and replace my hip with the view to playing at the highest level again. The number one reason to have something so serious is improve your quality of life and being in less pain.
“Athletes have had operations like that done and come back to play – but certainly not in tennis and in singles.
“If I do that I’m not sure I will be competing again.”
Murray, who was knighted in the Queen’s New Year Honours list at the end of 2016, also ruled out becoming a doubles player in the future, ending the possibility of him teaming up with older brother Jamie in the twilight of his career.
BBC Sport’s Jonathan Jurejko in Melbourne
From the moment Andy Murray walked into the news conference at Melbourne Park, you felt a sense that something wasn’t quite right.
Asked a simple opening question of how he was feeling, an emotional Murray struggled to get an answer of “not great” out before covering his face with his cap and sobbing underneath.
Murray has often showed his emotion on court but this was different. This was raw emotion in a place where players – and indeed sport stars generally – don’t like to show their true feelings in front of the world’s media.
A sombre silence filled the room after Murray temporarily left – before he returned, a little more composed, and managed to tell us more.
The toils of the past four months – going to Philadelphia to work with rehab expert Bill Knowles and realising he still can’t reach the required physical level which brought him three Grand Slam titles, plus perhaps the harsh reality of being unable to compete with Novak Djokovic in a practice session here on Thursday – have hit Murray.
Despite his fragile state, he still managed to fulfil his media duties and there was even evidence of his dry wit coming out as he was interviewed by television crews after the main news conference.
But a cracking voice was never far away as he discussed the pain in his hip and in his mind as he contemplated his future.
And when his media duties were done, the tears flowed again between him and coach Jamie Delgado as they shared an embrace in a media centre corridor.
| Murray’s career in numbers | |
|---|---|
| 3 Grand Slams | 37 weeks as world number one |
| 2 Olympic gold medals | 14 Masters 1000 titles |
| 1 ATP Finals | 11 Grand Slam finals |
Watch Andy Murray as a “bright star” of the future in 2001, when he was just 14 years old and aiming for Wimbledon success.
Cabal/Farah to play Murray/Soares in Sydney final
Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus will attempt to capture their second title in their sixth tour-level final (1-4 record) on Saturday at the ASB Classic. The pair will play Ben McLachlan and Jan-Lennard Struff in a repeat of last year’s title match at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships.
Third seeds Klaasen and Venus lost just five of their first-service points to end the run of second seeds Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan 6-4, 6-1 in 53 minutes. Bob Bryan, who underwent hip surgery last year, reunited with his twin brother last week in their first tournament for eight months.
McLachlan and Struff knocked out top seeds and defending champions Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic 6-4, 6-7(6), 11-9 in one hour and 46 minutes. Marach and Pavic saved three match points in the second set at 5-5 (deciding point Deuce) and from 4/6 in the tie-break to force a tense finale.
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At the Sydney International, top-seeded Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah will challenge second seeds and 2016 champions Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares in the final.
Cabal and Farah knocked out Australians Lleyton Hewitt and Jordan Thompson 7-6(7), 7-5 in one hour and 36 minutes. Cabal and Farah, who recovered from a 3/6 deficit in the first set tie-break, have an 11-16 record in tour-level finals.
Murray and Soares, who have a 9-8 record in team finals, defeated British brothers Ken Skupski and Neal Skupski 7-6(4), 5-7, 10-7 in one hour and 37 minutes.
| Australian Open 2019 |
|---|
| Venue: Melbourne Park Dates: 14-27 January |
| Coverage: Daily live commentaries on the BBC Sport website, listen to Tennis Breakfast daily from 07:00 GMT on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra and watch highlights on BBC TV and online from 19 January. |
British number four Harriet Dart will face five-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova of Russia in the first round of the Australian Open after winning her final qualifying match.
The 22-year-old world number 132 beat Serbia’s Ivana Jorovic 1-6 6-3 6-1.
After receiving a wildcard for last year’s Wimbledon, it is the first time she has reached a Slam through the qualifying rounds.
Dan Evans also won to make it eight British players in the first round.
It is the first time Evans, 28, has reached the main draw of a major tournament since returning from a drugs ban last year.
The British number four will face another qualifier – Tatsuma Ito of Japan – after beating Italian veteran Paolo Lorenzi 6-3 6-3.
Evans has the incentive of a potential third-round tie against Swiss world number three Roger Federer.
Andy Murray, who said earlier on Friday the tournament in Melbourne could be the last of his career, Kyle Edmund and Cameron Norrie are already in the men’s draw, with Johanna Konta, Heather Watson and Katie Boulter in the women’s.
Britain’s Andy Murray fears next week’s Australian Open could be his last tournament.