The Guardian view on Andy Murray: great Scot, great guy, great backhand

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/11/the-guardian-view-on-andy-murray-great-scot-great-guy-great-backhand

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Andy Murray, who has signalled his retirement from tennis, is a sports revolutionary. His claim in history was to be Britain’s first Wimbledon men’s singles champion in many decades, a feat he achieved in 2013 and 2016. He won two Olympic golds and is the only person to have been voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year three times. He was also the first British tennis player to be knighted. But these achievements, remarkable as they are, don’t make him a revolutionary.

Three things make him a man who really shifted the dial. The first is the way he changed how he himself was seen. When he first came to notice, Mr Murray was a gifted but introverted player who found it hard to win over the public. His outsider’s awkwardness was often contrasted with the establishment entitlement of his predecessor as British number one, Tim Henman. Mr Murray was Scottish and had not risen through the system, training in France. “Tory Tim”, as some commentators dubbed him, was blazered and southern – and rose through the very traditional Lawn Tennis Association.

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Mr Murray didn’t try to reinvent himself. Instead he became a champion by doing it his own way. He made himself stronger and fitter, and honed his backhand into a lethal weapon. He began winning, which was a welcome change for a victory-starved British tennis public whose annual hapless shout – once dubbed the three most depressing words in the English language – was “Come on, Tim”. He took over because he was better and more ruthless, but without compromising his less privileged background, his Scottishness or his determination to succeed on his own terms. Nationalists like Alex Salmond were desperate to have his backing for independence in 2014, a tribute to his status. But after victories Mr Murray has draped himself in both the saltire and the union jack.

Mr Murray didn’t just change his image. He also changed his attitudes. As he developed as a player, so he developed as a human being. He allowed his emotions to show more, as he did again with the media this week. He urged men to open up about depression. He admitted that fatherhood made tennis seem less important. He discovered an eloquence with words as well as with the racket.

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Above all, he has reflexively treated women as equals. His mother shaped his early training. Later he appointed Amélie Mauresmo as his coach. He supported equal prize money. He criticised Wimbledon for not scheduling enough women’s matches on show courts. All this was done with great ease and naturalness. “Your voice for equality will inspire future generations,” said Billie Jean King on Friday in a tribute. “You always fight in our corner,” tweeted Heather Watson. “Have I become a feminist?” Mr Murray wrote recently. “Well, if being a feminist is about fighting so that a woman is treated like a man then yes, I suppose I have.”

Finally, Mr Murray changed British tennis. Before him, tennis in Britain was mostly played and run by posh people. Even the great Fred Perry – triple Wimbledon champion in the 1930s (and son of a Labour MP) – was kept at a distance by the LTA most of his life. Mr Murray may struggle, on his own, to reverse the calamitous decline in tennis facilities in the state school sector. But what a platform he now has. And at least his successors – the current British number one Kyle Edmund, for example – are no longer likely to end up as plucky losers in the first week of championships. For that, they will thank the determined young man from Dunblane who, for many of us, is the best British sports star of our era.

Andy Murray

Opinion

Tennis

Wimbledon

BBC

Scotland

Feminism

Women

editorials

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