Saturday, 7 July 2012

The Legend V The Pretender

Tomorrow Andy Murray will become the first British male tennis player to step out on Centre Court in a Wimbledon final since 1938.

He will follow in the footsteps of Bunny Austin who was defeated in that final by American Don Budge 74 years ago.

If he wins, Murray will become the first British man to win the title since Fred Perry completed a hat-trick of wins in 1936.

But standing in his way is arguably the greatest man to ever pick up a tennis racket in the shape of Roger Federer.

The legend from Switzerland is bidding for a record-equalling seventh Wimbledon title to match Pete Sampras, whilst Murray of course is desperate to land that elusive first grand slam title at the 27th time of asking.

So who's going to triumph come Sunday evening at SW19? A case can certainly be put forward for both men.

Federer simply has to be the favourite due to his unbelievable grand slam record having collected a record 16 majors, whilst Murray has lost the three major finals he has been in including two defeats to Federer at the 2008 US Open and the 2010 Australian Open.

At times in this tournament Federer has looked vulnerable, particularly in the third round when he was two sets down against Julian Benneteau but also in the following round when Belgian Xavier Malisse took a set off him and was leading 2-0 in the fourth set, before the Swiss stepped it up a gear.

However, yesterday Federer was simply sublime against the reigning Wimbledon champion and World number one Novak Djokovic.

He had been comprehensively beaten by the Serb in the French Open semi finals a month ago when he looked out of sorts but on Centre Court yesterday the true form of Federer was out on show.

It might have taken him four sets to win the semi-final but the Swiss man always seemed in control. His serve was simply superb and the backhand passing winners were constant.

The performance was the best I had seen Federer at the latter stages of a slam for a couple of years and he looks ready for a seventh Wimbledon crown having fallen at the quarter final stage in the last two years.

Does that mean I'm ruling Murray out of tomorrow's final? Not at all.

I've seen a different side to the Scot's game since he started working with the legendary eight-time Grand Slam winner Ivan Lendl at the start of this year.

He was very unfortunate to lose in the Australian Open semi finals to Djokovic in an epic semi-final lasting almost five hours weeks after Lendl was brought on board.

Lendl has certainly brought a new controlled focus to Murray's game. He doesn't show his emotions as much on the court as he used to.

His second serve, forever a weakness in Murray's game has been a lot stronger throughout this years Wimbledon whilst some of his winners on both his forehand and backhand have beggared belief at times.

But to win tomorrow Murray must remain focused and be aggressive. As someone who has watched Murray since he burst through in 2005, he has been far too cautious in his finals and has displayed an extremely fragile mental attitude.

The Andy Murray of 2012 is different though. He seems more in control. He knows he won't get too many better chances than this. He showed that in spades against David Ferrer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarter and semi finals respectively.

The pressure of course will be tremendous. There are rumours that the Queen and David Cameron might be there watching as well as the millions of fans back home with their televisions.

Murray is very unfairly tagged a bottler by many who simply don't know enough about tennis.

Let's hope that he completes a historic victory tomorrow to deny them the chance to come out the woodwork.

And I think he will do it. In five gruelling sets.

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