Great performance by Murray and i'm thrilled for him- that's his key "career goal" ticked off. He can now focus on simply bulking out his record/legacy, and i expect him to go from strength to strength. ...However, djokovic was at 70% yesterday by his standards, and looked absolutely knackered after the Del Potro semi on friday. He's still no.1 in the world, and will probably clean up at the US open.
I think that's very harsh on the crowd at Wimbledon Goldie. It is much, much worse in the other majors where the crowd applaud double faults etc. The Wimbledon crowd are very fair and gave Djokovic a lot of applause when he played well and a huge ovation at the end. You can't blame them for being partisan.
Just want to make a point Col about the possibility of Murray being from Northern Ireland and therefore he would be a "British winner". I would say to you that you can't assume that a person from Northern Ireland is British. Yes they may live in UK territory, pay their taxes to HM's government etc. but their nationally isn't automatically British. Under the terms of the Anglo Irish Agreement, any person from the 6 counties of the North is entitled to consider themselves Irish and to apply for an Irish passport. They are also entitled to play sport for Ireland or the Republic of Ireland team if there are two sets of teams as is the case in football. At the moment, roughly 40% of people in the North consider themselves Irish, not British. From a sporting point of view probably the highest profile sportsman/woman who would definitely not consider themselves to be British is Darren Clarke. I have seen him wave the Irish tricolour many times at Ryder Cups. Clarke, Rory Mc Ilroy and Graeme Mc Dowell have represented the Irish team at the team world matchplay championships. They are chosen by the all-Ireland golfing union called the Golfing Union of Ireland. Their role is to nurture young players on the whole Island from a young age and to have strong underage teams represent the whole island in golfing competitions. Considering the amount of majors they have won, somebody has done a good job with the young golfers on this island. From a political point of view, the players may or may not consider themselves to be British. One or two of those 3 players may choose to play golf in the next Olympics for the GB & NI team if they choose but likewise, they can also choose to play for Ireland. There is a big debate going on over here about which country they should choose to represent and indeed Mc ilroy has also stated that he has a third option which is to play for neither country for fear of upsetting people about which country he chooses to represent. There are lots of all Ireland sports, GAA, rugby, Hockey, Boxing - two of Ireland's 5 medal winners in the London Olympics boxing were from Belfast and indeed many boxers from Belfast have won medals for Ireland in the Olympics including people from a unionist tradition. Sorry to have gone on a bit but I just wanted to make that point.
Have to say Murray has matured from the surly teenage Jock at the start of his career to a much more likeable guy now. The real development is his physique. I remember him losing a semi to Nadal about four years back and thinking he'll never bridge that gap, Nadal absolutely blew him away but he went away and year by year has worked fantastically hard to develop his own game, Sunday was the payback for all that hard work. Andy and Djokovic have come through the ranks together, now they are set to dominate the rest of this decade and deservedly so...
That's fine if you come from Australia, France, Britain or the US, Col, since it evens out much like football teams playing home and away. But for tennis players that come from countries outside those four nations, they don't get that advantage. Wimbledon has historically been the paragon of fair play and even-handedness, which is partly why top players of all nations could embrace it as their own. Navratilova, Becker etc. Henmania brought an end to that imho.
Blimey mate.........I honestly wasn't trying to make any kind of political point and I'm genuinely sorry if what I said offended you in any way. I was just trying to make the point that it wouldn't matter to me which part of the UNITED KINGDOM Murray came from............I'd always consider him to be a British winner. It's obviously up to the individual what country they consider themselves to hail from. Hope that makes things clearer.........sorry again if I caused offence!
What about players like Evert/McEnroe/Sampras/Borg/Conners etc etc........all hugely popular at Wimbledon, but non-British?
But that's just it, Col. In those days, the Wimbledon crowd loved the individual irrespective of nationality. When we had a British winner, Virginia Wade won without all the jingoism. But by Henman's time, the crowd had become more partisan and less sporting, imo.
The best thing about Murray's improvement over time is that he's become confident. I feel like confidence is the one biggest problem that British and especially English sports people face. For some reason or another we're very nervous and highly pressured people. Just look at the England football team.
You didn't cause any offence Col so don't worry.. Did you consider Darren Clarke's win in the Open last year, a British win? It wasn't, that's my point. He has never represented Britain/United Kingdom at anything. He is 100% an Irish golfer. Again, don't be sorry, you didn't cause offence. Sorry for going into one.
I suppose it's an Irish thing mate. As you say, some in the North will consider themselves Irish whilst the majority think of themselves as British. Having said that, I consider myself English first and then British. Anyway, bollox to it...............a great win by Andy whatever!!
Agreed, a great win for himself, Scotland, Britain and for tennis worldwide. It's great to see a new name at the top.
