No More Excuses for Andy Murray at Wimbledon

It hasn’t always been easy being Andy Murray, but this year things are different.

He is no longer the perennial bridesmaid of men’s tennis.

Since Wimbledon last year, Murray has captured the gold medal at the London Olympics and won the U.S. Open.  He is now in what he considers the "second part" of his career, via sportmagazine.com.

Last year after losing a heartbreaking final to Roger Federer on Centre Court at Wimbledon, he choked back tears as he told his hometown crowd, “I’m getting closer.”

This year he returns to the scene with the hardware that proves he has arrived at his destination.

There are no more doubts. 

Well, that's not exactly true. There were a few doubts after Murray struggled through the clay season and pulled out of the French Open with a bad back, but he put those to rest after winning the title at Queen's Club last week, putting the British hype machine back into overdrive. 

It’s always hard not to feel sorry for Andy Murray at Wimbledon. The type of scrutiny he’s under from the British press seems more appropriate for royalty than for an athlete.

From Murray Mound to Buckingham Palace, every winner and every error he hits is magnified a hundred times over. The hopes of a nation live and die on the face of his racket.

As the reality-based joke goes, if he wins he's British, if he loses he's Scottish. If you lose track, there's a website to help you keep up.

Perhaps it doesn’t seem fair, but one man’s blessing is another man’s curse.

There are a lot of perks that come with being the hometown hero. Murray always plays on the biggest courts. His matches always get priority scheduling. Every point he wins sends the crowd into a frenzy of elation—by British standards, at least.

The main reason he gets so much scrutiny is because he's all they have. He is the only male British tennis player in the Top 200. He arrived on the scene just as Tim Henman was departing, and the burden of becoming the first British Grand Slam winner since 1936 landed promptly on his shoulders.

With nowhere to hide, Andy Murray has had to grow up in front of the Wimbledon crowds. 

The Murray that first captivated the British hysteria was a frizzy-haired, muscle-showcasing, howling-to- the-heavens 21-year-old who turned Centre Court into a rave during the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2008, when he came back from two sets and a breakdown to beat Richard Gasquet.

Since then, he's always found himself in the later stages of the tournament, but never as the last man standing. As his competitors have built legendary careers and pushed for career slams, he has been sent home early every single time. He's been a mere supporting role in the "golden era" of men's tennis, and the source of countless British angst.

As the years went by, it seemed like he might never get his moment to shine. Andy Murray would never win a slam, and if he did, it definitely wouldn't be at Wimbledon. The whispers there were too deafening, the pressure too burdensome, the asterisk too bright and the tabloid font too large.

Not anymore. Now the burden has been lifted.

Thanks to the Olympics, his last memory on the hallowed lawns of Wimbledon are not tears of doubt, but rather tears of gold.

Thanks to his U.S. Open victory, the flashing asterisk has disappeared.

He struts into the All England Club this year with his head held a bit higher, his shoulders a bit lighter and his trophy case a bit shinier. He's not afraid of anything anymore, not the crowds or the journalists or even a bad draw. 

To some, it doesn't matter what Andy Murray does elsewhere if he doesn't win Wimbledon. To them, it's his show, his burden and his responsibility. But with a Grand Slam on his resume, the pressure from those people longer phases him.

He has flipped the script. Now he gets to write new chapters.

There is no reason that Andy Murray cannot win Wimbledon. He's proven he can win in the London spotlight. He's proven he can win a Grand Slam. He's proven throughout his career that he can beat all of his competitors on the biggest stages. Now it's just time for him to do all of these things at once. 

It has been nine months since a British man last won a Grand Slam. It's time for Andy Murray to stop the drought.