Andy Murray: Dunblane's Local Hero
Updated: 9:56am UK, Saturday 06 July 2013
By James Matthews, Scotland Correspondent
The first time I interviewed Andy Murray was after he won the US Junior Open in 2004, aged 17.
He'd flown back from New York and the Murray party was strolling through arrivals at Edinburgh Airport.
On approaching the gangly teenager with the grunge look, I stretched out my hand and offered: "Congratulations Andy!"
The youngster replied: "I'm Jamie. Andy'll be through in a minute."
Nine years on, recognition isn't an issue anymore. Everyone knows Andy Murray.
Everyone should also know that his older brother Jamie is, for now, the only Wimbledon winner in the family - he scooped the mixed doubles title in 2007.
For me, like every other Scotland Correspondent these days, watching Andy in Grand Slam finals is usually done amongst the people of Dunblane, where he grew up.
If Andy's exploits on court are headline news, the reactions amongst his 'ain folk' are always part of the story.
In the pub, in the community centre, in the tennis club - it is Dunblane's Andy Murray ritual.
The big match on a big screen watched by a big crowd of former neighbours, schoolmates, tennis partners and passing acquaintances.
Don't mention to them that some people don't take kindly to their local hero.
Indeed, the notion that there should be any degree of antipathy towards Andy Murray baffles and irritates in equal measure.
Yes, he might have lacked a ready smile for the cameras in his early years. Sure, he may have fallen short when better was expected.
But does that deserve an anti-Murray feeling that seems to persist?
If there is any doubt that it does, consider the conversation I had with some of his close relatives late last year.
I was told that they had persistently received hate mail through the post because of the family connection.
However, they also told me that there had come a point when it tailed off - significantly, after Andy's tears in defeat at Wimbledon 2012 and the subsequent Olympic Gold medal win.
Suddenly, Britain as a whole seemed to have become supportive.
Shortly afterwards, Andy Murray went on to win the US Open.
Can that be coincidence? Rather, might it be the case that, at last, he was able to enjoy the collective support of the country and his supreme talent was allowed to flow, unfettered by a voice in his head willing him to lose?
In a sporting environment saturated with brilliance in which victory is defined by tiny margins, the psychological edge of support had to help. In football, they call it the twelfth man.
Of course, what hasn't helped Andy Murray's PR - famously - was his line in banter regarding the England football team a few years ago.
Teased by Tim Henman at a news conference that Scotland hadn't qualified for the World Cup, he jokingly retorted that he would be supporting "Anyone but England."
A gag. In the hands of some headline-writers, however, it was foaming-at-the-mouth anti-Englishness.
I don't know what Andy Murray, resident of Oxshott in Surrey and partner of Sussex-born Kim Sears, thinks of that episode and its fall-out.
I do know that his family thinks he was stitched up in outrageous fashion.
And so to Dunblane for the final. For Sky News, we'll be watching folk watching Andy Murray and maybe, just maybe, cheering Britain's first men's Wimbledon champion since Fred Perry in 1936.
One of the venues in which the locals will gather is the Dunblane Centre.
It's a community facility built with money donated following the massacre at Dunblane Primary School in 1996, in which 16 pupils and their teacher were shot dead.
Andy Murray was a pupil of the school at the time.
Inscribed on a glass wall at the community centre are the names of those who were killed on that day in March 1996. They'll never be forgotten in this cathedral city, where people have grown with the pain of the past.
Come the Wimbledon final against against Novak Djokovic on Sunday, it's all about celebrating the present.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Wimbledon: Andy Murray Aiming To Make History
Dengan url
http://yojanganmenyerah.blogspot.com/2013/07/wimbledon-andy-murray-aiming-to-make.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Wimbledon: Andy Murray Aiming To Make History
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Wimbledon: Andy Murray Aiming To Make History
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar