Scotland’s Ace: Move Over Henman
With Tiger Tim’s days on the tennis circuit numbered, can young Scottish dynamo, Andy Murray, fulfil Britain’s hopes for a Wimbledon win?
AS TIM HENMAN PREPARES TO RIDE OFF INTO THE WIMBLEDON SUNSET, ANDY MURRAY IS BRITAIN’S GREAT NEW HOPE. ROBERT PHILIP MET THE 19-YEAR-OLD HOPEFUL AND HIS MUM, TO DISCUSS THE PRESSURE, THE FUTURE AND THE IMPACT OF SURVIVING DUNBLANE’S MASSACRE
interview: robert philip
WHEN Roger Federer won hisfirst Wimbledon title in 2003, the victorious Swiss was presented with a Friesian cow called Juliet, a present from a proud home nation. Should 19-year-old Andy Murray become thefirst British male to triumph on the Centre Court since Fred Perry achieved the last of his three victories in 1936, he can expect that Scotland will have bagpipes playing and the keys to Holyrood Palace thrust upon him when he returns home.
Henman remains this nation’s most successful men’s singles competitor of modern times, with four semi-final and four quarter-final appearances in the past nine years. Come 2017, when Murray will have reached the age of 30 and might contemplate retirement, would he be satisfied with that record? “Yeah…but only as long as I’ve won the US, French or Australian Opens as well,” he grins.
Murray beat two former world number one players, Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt, to win the SAP Open in San José in February. He broke into the Top 50 from a ranking that was below 400 just 12 months ago. So, when the crowds pour through the gates of the All England Club in June, those who prefer to follow the action on the giant screen from the grassy knoll behind Court No.1 willfind that Henman Hill has been renamed Murray Field.
Wimbledon champion in 2002, Hewitt is unstinting in his praise of his teenage conqueror. “He’s confident and that’s what it takes to make it on the tour at a young age. Andy Murray’s going to continue to get better and better in the next few years. I liken him to Miloslav Mecir and there haven’t been too many 18-year-olds in the lastfive years or so with that kind of skill.” Mecir won the gold medal for Slovakia at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, was twice runner-up in major championships, won 11 singles titles and, in terms of natural talent, was considered the equal of John McEnroe and Ilie Nastase.
For his part, Murray has worn the mantle of greatness since winning the 1999 Orange Bowl under-12 title in Florida (the world championship of junior tennis). So burning was his desire to become a champion that, at the age of 14, he rejected the chance of a football career when Rangers invited him to join the club’s School of Excellence.
But what of the pressure of public expectation, of the attendant celebrity status, of the media intrusion into his private life to which Henman would wearily attest? “It’s only around Wimbledon the press are really hard on Tim, so I guess I’ll just need to win Wimbledon to shut everyone up,” he says with the cocky confidence of youth. Even the prospect of being mobbed by legions of female tennis fans is one to be savoured: “That would be cool!”
When Murray stoodfive points from victory against former Wimbledon runner-up, Argentine David Nalbandian, on thefirst Saturday of last year’s championships, and lost after his still growing body began complaining, Jimmy Connors described it as ‘Day one of his career…’ So has the worldly wise Henman passed on any words of wisdom about what to expect from life in the celebrity goldfish bowl? “Tim’s been fantastic, especially in advising me about how to deal with the press. Basically, he told me to keep my head down and say as little as humanly possible in the nicest possible way. As Tim knows only too well, everyone will write nice things about me just now because I’m on the way up but all that will change when I start winning then, inevitably, losing matches, too.”
Henman and Murray are very different breeds. Throughout his career, the Englishman has sought to keep his emotions and his thoughts to himself, whereas the young Scot is a creature of passion. On court he is altogether morefiery than Henman and, just like most teenagers when asked for an opinion, can usually be guaranteed to tell it like it is. Such outspokenness landed him in trouble earlier this year when he generated boos from the crowd at the Auckland Open. After losing to Croatian Mario Ancic, he breezily informed his on-court interviewer that in thefirst set they had ‘played like women’. “I make one small comment which was a joke and was taken out of context. I have to watch every word I say.”
Especially when it is the F-word he let fly during Britain’s Davis Cup defeat against Serbia & Montenegro in April. The outcome was a mauling at the pencils of Fleet Street’s headline writers: “Foul-Mouthed Murray”; “Angry Young Man”; “Murray Rages In Defeat”; “Murray’s Obscene Volley Of Abuse”; “Murray’s Four-Letter Shame”; “Effin’ Mad”.
Murray will cheerfully talk at length about any subject except the events of March 13, 1996 when Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 of his fellow pupils and their teacher in the gymnasium of Dunblane Primary School. “I was very young so, fortunately, I don’t remember too much about it now,” he recalls with tangible reluctance. “It was very scary but I didn’t fully understand what was happening. One of my best friend’s brother died.”
For Andy’s mother, Judy, who had two sons at school that morning, the memory is all too vivid. “I don’t want to sound corny but, because there are no words to really explain what everyone went through, all I can say is that it was the worst day of my life. You could never, ever have imagined anything like that happening in your little, peaceful village…never.
“Andy was eight and his big brother, Jamie, nine. I had a shop at the time in the heart of Dunblane selling toys and children’s clothes so I knew just about everyone involved. Both boys had been members of the boys’ club Thomas Hamilton set up, so they knew him well and to this day Jamie refuses to talk about it at all; not a word. Andy used to ask a lot of questions like ‘Why did he do it?’, but he’s not comfortable discussing it now, which is why, whenever he’s entering a tournament, he usually lists his home town as Stirling rather than Dunblane.”
If Murray succeeds in his ambition of winning Grand Slam championships, the nation should erect a statue to mum Judy who, as one-time Scottish National Tennis Coach, encouraged the development of not only her sons Andy and Jamie, but also that of David Brewer and Jamie Baker, all of whom were ranked in the world top 20 as juniors and are now beginning to make their mark as seniors. A former Scottish champion, Judy is far removed from the ‘tennis parent from hell’ image. Her charges have always been encouraged to make their own decisions. When the 14-year-old Andy returned home after losing to Spanish wonder-boy Rafael Nadal he railed: “Do you know who he practises with? Carlos Moya [one-time world number one]. And who do I practise with? My big brother…”. And so the youngster was duly allowed to join the Emilio Sanchez academy in Barcelona.
Nadal, winner of last year’s French Open, regards Murray as his biggest threat to world dominance in the years ahead, a view shared by the Scot’s ex coach, former British Davis Cup player, Mark Petchey, who says: “He can be as big as Wayne Rooney. He might even be better. England may never win the World Cup but Andy might well win Wimbledon. So, yes, he can be a bigger star than Wayne Rooney. He certainly has the ‘X-factor’…”
While Petchey may be a tad biased, he is not alone. “He’s going to be very, very, very good,” opines John Lloyd, who was rather good himself and reached thefinal of the Australian Open in 1977 before becoming a TV commentator. “I have no doubt that in a few years’ time we will be talking about a Grand Slam champion.”
Jimmy Connors, who, like Murray, always wore his heart on his sleeve, is another admirer. “He’s spectacular. To be able to display such passion as Andy does on court is great because it’s shows your love for the game. But let’s not put too much pressure on him. Allow him a couple of years’ grace.”
Alas, from here on in that pressure now relinquished by Henman will rest on Murray’s slender shoulders amid the rising tide of hysteria which, as Pat Cash says: “Is too late to stop. It’s already out there.”
But thefinal word (as ever) goes to John McEnroe: “I predicted a few months ago that Murray would be in the Top 20 around Wimbledon and there is an excellent chance of that happening. After that, the sky is the limit, it really is.”
