Andy Murray’s standing as an international athlete ought to be established beyond doubt – certainly in tennis he is universally respected and admired – but it is a little odd, still, to hear commentators occasionally say that he has “finally arrived” in the hearts of fans.
This lingering perception of Murray as a Scot and an outsider was the subject of a controversial advert put out by the bookmakers Paddy Power earlier in the tournament, which attracted widespread criticism for branding certain established athletes as foreigners. The advert also features Mo Farah, who was born in Somalia, the Jamaican-born footballer Raheem Sterling, the Irish-born cricketer Eoin Morgan and the Samoan-born rugby player Manu Tuilagi, all of whom have represented England or Great Britain.
Indeed, the poster was offensive on all levels. Plastered on the side of a lorry clearly meant to be going through the docks at Dover, it read: “Immigrants jump in the back! (But only if you’re good at sport).”
On Saturday, when Murray plays the Italian Andreas Seppi in the third round at Wimbledon, there will be a packed Centre Court awaiting him on what is known as sportsman’s day, with the royal box containing sports contemporaries from several disciplines – maybe even a player or two from Arsenal, whom he supports alongside Hibernian. There has always been huge respect for Murray in the wider sporting community, from the former world champion boxers David Haye and Johnny Nelson, to the world’s No1 golfer, Rory McIlroy, so it is enlightening to hear his thoughts on how he might fare in an episode of Superstars.
“I’d like to do it and would find it fun,” he says. “For tennis, you have to be good at a lot of things. My speed on the tennis court is because I am quick over two or three metres or changing direction. Over a 50m or 100m race I am not going to be particularly quick in comparison to some football players or some rugby players.
“But I suppose we are used to being very versatile. There are a lot of different skills that you have to train in tennis, in terms of the strokes – forehands, backhands, serves, returns, smashes, drop shots, different spins, different surfaces. You are not playing on the same surface every time and different opponents every couple of days, which can be challenging tactically. In terms of our physical skill set – we would have to be good at a lot of things without necessarily being good at one thing.”
He will need all of those well-practised gifts against Seppi, even though he has beaten the world No27 in six out of their seven meetings. The Italian’s only success was in their first match, a quarter-final in Nottingham nine years ago. In their last encounter, Murray won on the clay of Naples in the Davis Cup last year.
Seppi, whose native language is German, comes from northern Italy and has the inventiveness of the classic Italian clay-courter.
“Seppi has had such good results this year,” Murray says. “He made the final a couple of weeks ago in Halle, plays well on the grass. He won against Roger [Federer] at the Australian Open this year. He’s capable of playing some top tennis.”
Murray also has some encouraging, but realistic, words for James Ward, who is in the same quarter of the draw and who plays the Canadian Vasek Pospisil – the British world No111’s first taste of the third round.
“It is not an easy thing to do. For me, I don’t like saying that it is great that James makes the top 100; what is great is that he reaches his potential. Not everybody has the capabilities to get to the top 100 but James really has the capability and you want to see him reach his potential, which he is getting close to doing.”
