When Tim Henman was the best that British tennis could offer, all sorts of people moaned that he was too English to be a real champion - a sort of racket-wielding, cucumber-sandwich-munching, inarticulate version of Hugh Grant. When, they demanded, would Britain produce a tough-guy tennis player who could take on the world? Well, that player has arrived, in the form of Andy Murray, who this season has moved from future hopeful to current champion - and the same people are moaning about his character instead of Henman's. Murray, they say, is too brutal, a bit charmless, too full of himself. He plays sport to win. And that is the point. At the weekend he dismantled Novak Djokovic in the sweltering final of a Masters Series tournament in Florida, the sort of victory that is now becoming routine. Since July last year he has won 57 matches and lost just seven - a better record than anyone else on the tour. Some of those defeats came in the biggest contests, including the Australian Open, where Murray also lost in the first round last year. But he is getting better - and stronger - and is closing in on third place in the rankings. First place is not out of his reach. For the English tennis establishment this progress is unsettling. Murray, proudly Scottish, went to Barcelona as a teenager to toughen up his game; he is not a product of the well-funded Lawn Tennis Association scheme. He has also changed coach as often as his tennis shirt. But every moan will be forgotten if he wins Wimbledon this July.

Editorial The Guardian, Tuesday 7 April 2009
  

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/07/in-praise-andy-murray/

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