The story of Andy Murray’s first Wimbledon win

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Andy Murray at Wimbledon

When Andy Murray lifted the Men’s Singles Trophy at Wimbledon in 2013, it ended a 77-year wait for a British winner at the Championships. The Scotsman followed the immortal Fred Perry in taking the crown and in doing so kick-started a run of six Grand Slam titles in four years.

Murray had fallen agonisingly short the year before, losing out to Roger Federer in the Final, having reached the last four in each of the previous three tournaments. But 2013 would prove to be the year that he shattered the supposed glass ceiling and banished more than three-quarters of a century of British tennis hoodoo to the history books.

In more recent years, it is doubles glory that’s been on Murray radar, but in this article, we will re-live what is still commonly regarded as his greatest moment in the sport.

The opening rounds

Seeded second for the tournament, Murray was placed in section eight and faced German Benjamin Becker in the first round. A Murray-Becker showdown would ordinarily have Tennis fans licking their lips at the prospect, especially following the families’ recent war of words. But Boris’s namesake was unable to live with the Brit and bowed out in straight sets.

Rendy Lu would await in the second round after dispatching of Jamie Ward by three sets to one in the first. The fatigue of contesting three tie-breakers and four sets just days earlier appeared to tell, as Murray recorded a second straight sets victory to coast onward.

Tougher opposition would await in round three in the shape of Tommy Robredo, who’d also won both of his opening matches in straight sets. But although Murray required a deciding game in set three, another efficient victory was chalked up and momentum was starting to build.

Standing between Murray and a place in the last eight was the Russian Mikhail Youzhny, who’d seen off Slovakian Viktor Troicki on his last outing. Youzhny pushed the home favourite hard in set two, forcing a tie break out of the number two seed, but an emphatic third-set performance saw Murray seal his passage into the quarter-finals without dropping a single set.

The Finals

Despite his relatively straight-forward progress in his first four matches, which had helped to preserve valuable muscle energy, Murray was under no illusions about the size of the task awaiting him. And the Scot would survive a huge scare in his last eight match.

Unseeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco shook centre court when he took out the first two sets, only for Murray to recover to take the next two, and then clinch victory with a 7-5 victory in set five.

Incredibly, Murray would also drop the first set in a gut-wrenching tie-break against Jerzy Janowicz in the semi-finals. But again, the Brit rallied to win the next three sets outright and secure his second Final appearance in as many years.

The man between Murray and the trophy he craved was Novak Djokovic, the number one seed. And while seedings don’t always prove to be an accurate indicator of performance, they heavily influence betting trends, as you’ll see in the tennis markets online at Space Casino.

And Murray would arguably head into this contest as the underdog, with Djokovic also having shown red hot form throughout the tournament. But the Gallant Scot would not be denied, winning 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 to spark jubilant scenes at SW19.

Murray would follow up his Wimbledon triumph with a second title three years later, while back-to-back wins in the Australian Open and a triumph in the French Open would further cement his legacy as one of the nation’s greatest ever players.

And it’s apparent that he’s still hungry for more.

 

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