![]() Much of this saga has been about the search for a neat ending. Even at the time, there was a sense that Murray had missed his big moment. Then, in Friday’s decider, a bad line call robbed Murray of his best chance of breaking serve. Wimbledon’s 11pm curfew saved a grumpy, misfiring Tsitsipas when he was trailing by two sets to one on Thursday night. Yet events conspired against him, as they so often do when you’re desperate for a break. For once, the draw looked to be opening up for him, with clay-loving Laslo Djere to play the winner, and first-time visitor Christopher Eubanks waiting in the last 16. In such a context, you can see why Murray was so crushed by last summer’s Centre Court exit at the hands of Stefanos Tsitsipas. But for Murray 2.0, each outing at a major is a coin-toss, with only 11 wins accruing from 22 attempts. ![]() Murray version 1.0 had a ratio of four-and-a-quarter grand-slam wins to every loss, meaning that his average result was slightly better than quarter-finals. That record at the slams – and especially at Wimbledon – is surely the most significant entry in the debit column. ![]() Yet one can’t help wondering whether Murray would do it all over again, if he knew that his post-surgical self would never make it past the third round of a major. Does anyone think less of Money or The Rachel Papers because Martin Amis’s late novels became critical punchbags? The answer must be “no”. As he explained, “I just didn’t agree that somehow by competing now, I was affecting what I achieved when I was fit and healthy and had two hips.” Last month, he bit back angrily at a BBC reporter who questioned whether his recent struggles were tarnishing his legacy. Murray hasn’t enjoyed being quizzed about his plans either. “Retirement talks have been around since I was 26,” said Hewitt, shortly before the operation. The closest analogy is Lleyton Hewitt, the 2002 Wimbledon champion who continued playing singles for more than four years after having his big toe immobilised by a metal plate. What makes Murray more unusual is his determination to keep forging on despite a physical handicap that will always be a limiting factor. Even a “greatest-of-all-time” contender like Serena Williams lost her edge in finals after returning from maternity leave. A loss of bottle is a common symptom among ageing athletes. That impacted hugely on his confidence, and sent an unfortunate message around the locker room: there’s no position, when playing Murray, from which a comeback is not possible. If there was a dividing line for Murray, it can probably be traced back to the match in Beijing in September where he squandered a 5-2 deciding-set lead against Alex de Minaur. “Then one day you wake up and it has come for you with a thump.” The former top-tenner Andea Petkovic put it well last week, when she wrote that the gradient of a tennis player’s decline is shallow, mitigated by nutritional supplements and medical sleight of hand. Like Ernest Hemingway’s bankruptcy, Murray’s slump arrived in two ways: gradually, then suddenly. On this year’s results, though, he would stand just outside the world’s top 150. He had three top-20 wins in 2023, and reached an ATP final in Doha, finishing the season at a respectable ranking of No 42. In all probability, Murray is as surprised as anyone by his rapid decline. His is now a zombie career, a narrative on life support, as he struggles on towards those marquee farewells at Wimbledon and the Olympic Games. ![]() More recently, though, Murray has been shambling around the court like a man wearing a weighted jacket. Over in the press room, we reporters were grateful for some upbeat storylines in an otherwise snoozy start to the new tennis season. Or think of the early weeks of 2023 – a hot spell in which he kept escaping from the most unpromising positions.
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