Murray Ends 77-Year Drought to Bring Home Wimbledon Title
In front of 15,000 on Sunday at the All-England Lawn Tennis Club, Andy Murray broke a 77-year singles title drought for British players at Wimbledon, defeating top-seeded and 2011 champion Novak Djokovic 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 in the finals. Fred Perry was the last native Brit to win the title in 1936. Last year, Murray was a Wimbledon finalist and fell to Roger Federer, 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 4-6. Murray defeated Djokovic in five sets to win the U.S. Open title in September, but had lost to Djokovic in their past three meetings, including the 2013 Australian Open final back in January.
"It feels slightly different to last year," said Murray after the match. "Last year was one of the toughest moments of my career. It was a tough match and an unbelievably long final game. I don’t know how I managed to come through. I’m just so glad. I understand how much everyone wanted to see a British winner at Wimbledon. I tried my best. I’ve played Novak many times. He’s going to go down as one of the biggest fighters. That made it extra tough; I just managed to squeeze through in the end."
Newspapers across the nation produced souvenir editions with front page headlines dedicated to Murray ending the 77-year drought, including, ‘History Boy’, ‘Champion’, ‘Magical Murray’, ‘At Last’, ‘After 77 Years, The Wait Is Over’ and ‘Now it’ll be arise, Sir Andy!’ Queen Elizabeth II sent a private message to Murray shortly after the final, which was watched by 17.3 million viewers on BBC television.
“Last year after the final [Ivan Lendl] told me he was proud of the way I played, because I went for it when I had chances," said Murray. "It was the first time I played a match in a Grand Slam final like that. I didn’t doubt myself so much after last year’s final. It was the best I’d recovered from a Grand Slam loss."
