“If I’d have cramped, it probably would have been curtains”: Andy Murray on the 2013 Wimbledon final
On the Control the Controllables podcast, the Scot admits he would have found it hard to win had he been broken when serving for the match
Andy Murray – Wimbledon 2013
For Andy Murray fans worldwide, it’s a question they have probably asked themselves many times. It’s a question tennis fans love to chat about over a beer. What would have happened if he had been broken by Novak Djokovic when serving out for the title at Wimbledon?
Murray, remember, was trying to become the first man to win a Wimbledon singles title since 1936. Ten months after winning his first slam title at the US Open and a year after winning the Olympics, Murray stood at the baseline preparing to serve, leading 6-4, 7-5, 5-4, 40-0.
What ensued was a game of unbelievable, almost unbearable tension as Djokovic saved all three match points and even forced three break points of his own. From triple match point up, it took 10 minutes before Murray finally won the title, Djokovic’s backhand down the line hitting the tape and falling back his side.
Murray: “I was cramping as well. It would have been curtains”
Just before the US Open, Murray was the guest of honour on the 200th episode of Control the Controllables, a podcast hosted by Dan Kiernan, a former British player and now the director of the Soto Tennis Academy in Spain.
In it, Murray discussed numerous topics in a typically thoughtful way, including when he was asked about that moment when he tried to serve it out at Wimbledon. Would he still have been favourite had he been broken for 5-5?
“Well, that’s a good question,” Murray said. “I would think with the bookies I still would have been favourite but I don’t know if I’d have been able to come back from that, because I was also cramping as well.
“I hid it pretty well, but that was the other thing that was going on at that moment, I had that to deal with – I was like, if I don’t get over the line here, physically I am struggling a lot, I’m going to cramp. Had that happened It probably would have been curtains.
“It was very hot that day. Some of it would have been nerves and the pressure, the tension, but I think he probably would have been favourite. For tennis people, they would have seen that and thought, it’s tough to come back from that from my perspective.”
Luckily for Murray, and British tennis, he got it done.
