Merry Murray makes medal magic as silver follows gold
BRITISH No1 Andy Murray hailed winning his Olympic gold medal as the finest feat of his career after decisively defeating tennis great Roger Federer in the men’s singles final at Wimbledon.
Murray and Laura Robson also yesterday won silver when losing in the mixed doubles final to Belarussians Victoria Azarenka and Max Mirnyi but the staggering nature of his earlier 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 victory over Federer was ultimately not to be overlooked.
“It’s number one for me – the biggest win of my life,” said Murray, whose devastating domination of Federer was as impressive as the determination with which he played. “The atmosphere was unbelievable. I spoke to [coach] Ivan Lendl after the Wimbledon final and he said to me ‘you’ll never play under more pressure than you did in the Wimbledon final’.
“I’m able to deal with the situations better now and I did, I felt much more comfortable on the court.
“The crowd helped me get a few extra miles an hour in the last couple of serves. I went for some big serves and I got them. It’s worth it. I’ve had a lot of tough losses in my career, but this is the best way to come back from the Wimbledon final and I’ll never forget it.”
Murray last month lost to Federer in the Wimbledon final and though that defeat means he is still yet to win a grand slam, some consolation can be taken from the fact his victory denied the game’s greatest ever player the only remaining true honour to elude him in an otherwise illustriously decorated career.
Of the 2-6, 6-3, 10-8 doubles defeat, Murray said: “She [Robson] played some great tennis. We would have signed up for a silver at the start of the event but it was just annoying to lose in the end.”
Robson added: “They were a really good team but I have to thank Andy for playing with me, it’s been the best week of my life.”