There's a new Wimbledon Champion ... and that is Andy Murray. Since Day One of this year's Wimbledon, this was surely the best outcome, and I am very, very pleased for him. He's never been one of my favourites, and there's a lot about his game that I don't care for. But he's a trier, and a hard worker, and he's suffered along the way. Therefore I hope he enjoys every single damn minute of it.
And I know his pal in Mallorca will also be delighted.
So Britain gets it's first Wimbledon Champion for 77 years and the best part of the tennis season now comes to a close.
I always feel sad when Wimbledon's over. I miss coming home from work at night and flicking the telly on and seeing the green grass and hearing the thwack of the tennis balls. And I also miss tennis being in my time zone. April to July is by far my most favourite part of the season. The game moves onto the natural surfaces, and it's played at traditional, old clubs that are steeped in history that goes back over a 100 years. We see tennis coming from some of the greatest cities in Europe, and for us Europeans, it's our chance to see our boy play live again.
And Wimbledon aside, the stand out player not just of this part of the season - but of the year - has been Rafa. The media is so fickle. You'd never actually know that the man who's won the most tournaments this year and is the stand out player is Rafa.
But then, as we all know ... clay court titles don't count.
I know as Rafa fans, we are tremendously proud of what he has achieved. Since his comeback in South America and from the start of the traditional clay court calendar, Rafa's been in 5 finals and won 4 of them, and added yet another Slam title and 2 Masters to his list of achievements. It's sad that the effort in doing so and the lack of time between the French Open and Wimbledon meant that he wasn't able to prepare as he would have liked, and his body felt the pain of adjustment. And to be honest, I have a little trepidation about how Rafa might cope now that we're back to the interminable hardcourts ... but for that, we'll just have to wait and see.
Tennis loses it's sparkle for me when Rafa is not around, but today still belongs to Andy ... so enjoy every moment!!
Onwards to Canada people ... let's get strapped in for the next bumpy ride !!! VAMOS!!
Beautifully put! Woody x
ReplyDeleteAs a Rafa fan, I'm glad also that Andy won. He deserved to win - he played fantastic.
ReplyDeleteWell I'm going to be blunt here: congratulations Andy, you so deserved to win, and I'm just so glad that the PoD didn't, couldn't possibly have stood the gloating, shirt-ripping, chest-beating exhibition that might have followed, so thank you Andy for sparing us from all that.
ReplyDeleteWho cares what the media thinks? Who's number 1 in the Race to London? Who's the only player to have qualified for the WTFs? I pray that Rafa's knees are healthy enough to carry him through the hardcourt season and allow him to compete as he would like.
I think we all would second you final statement, Jackie. I was Anyone-But-Djokovic from after the first day, for exactly the same reasons you quote. Indeed we were all saved ...
DeleteYes, so happy for Murray, a good hard worker and loyal friend of Rafa, a kid who's worked hard for years to get where he finally landed yesterday.
DeleteI'm also very glad the Devil's whelp didn't win. I didn't expect him to win, though I thought it would go 5 sets.
I think we'll be seeing more of Jerzy and Juan-Martin, Verdasco and even Berdy, maybe Gulbis and Paire as well. The young studs with their boom-boom games are hungry and not afraid of anyone (though perhaps they should be). The rest of this year could be very surprising.
But, of course, I pay no attention to the ghastly talking heads and pompous blogganalysts; I want only to see Rafa playing again. Fingers crossed...