My how things have changed 2◊Players named Andy who played for the Wimbledon title between 1936 and 2013. Andy Roddick of the United States played in three finals from 2004-2009, losing all three to Roger Federer.
Andy Murray lost to Federer last year.
8◊The price of a ticket in pounds ($12) for a grounds pass at the All England Club. In 1936, the price was 3 shillings. Britain stopped issuing shillings in 1967.
10◊The age of Queen Elizabeth II when Fred Perry won in 1936.
She was known as Princess Elizabeth that year.
12◊Countries represented in the finals since 1936.
16◊Times the office of prime minister has changed hands between the victories of Fred Perry and Andy Murray.
Also, the number of American men who have won the singles title.
39◊Different players who have won the singles title since 1936.
1960◊The year Nigeria was granted independence from the British Empire. Since Fred Perry’s victory, more than a dozen countries in Africa, Hong Kong and large chunks of the Caribbean, including Jamaica, have gained their independence from the empire.
2000◊Last time an American man, Pete Sampras, won the singles title.
WIMBLEDON, England - On Sunday before another men’s final, the fans in their broad-brimmed hats and sunscreen stopped to take pictures and pay tennis tribute to the bronze statue of Fred Perry, which stands just outside Centre Court at Wimbledon.
Perry, a debonair Englishman, won the last of his three Wimbledon singles titles in 1936. But by late afternoon, with the shadows extending across the most hallowed court in tennis, Perry no longer stood alone.
Britain could finally celebrate, from the lawns of Wimbledon to the lochs of Scotland.
More than 15,000 were at Centre Court, with thousands more watching on a big-screen TV on the grounds and, of course, the millions of British watching on TV.
Andy Murray, a 26-year-old Scot, put a convincing end to a 77-year drought for the British men at the tournament that matters most to British menBritish men and their public. Murray did it by defeating Novak Djokovic, the No. 1 seed, without the loss of a set: 6-4, 7-5, 6-4.
He did it by proving better in the clutch and on the run than Djokovic, the game’s premier defender and marathon man. Murray did it by rallying from a break of serve down in the last two sets and then shrugging off the loss of three match points and a 40-0 lead in the final game on his own serve.
He kept pushing, kept trying, as so many British men with lesser skills have tried through the decades, but this time the ending was different. On Murray’s fourth match point, Djokovic hit a two-handed backhand into the tape, and the final, with that burst of sound, was over.
The long-awaited moment lacked extraordinary sponaneity, looking a lot like so many other celebrations of recent years.
Murray stripped off his cap, pumped his fists and then shook hands with Djokovic, an old friend and rival, before climbing into the players box to embrace his family and friends, nearly forgetting his mother and boyhood coach, Judy Murray, before reversing course and hugging her, too.
Then came the on-court interview, where Murray had broken down after losing a lead and the final to Roger Federer last year.
“It feels slightly different to last year,” began Murray, proving that understatement extends to Scotland, as well. “Last year was one of the toughest moments of my career, so to manage to win the tournament today, it was an unbelievably tough match. So many long games, and I don’t know how I managed to come through that final game.”
Sue Barker, the BBC broadcaster, told Murray that the game had been “torturous to watch.”
Murray skipped a beat and said, “Imagine playing it.”
He then spoke of Djokovic.
“I’ve played Novak many times, and I think when everyone is finished playing he’s going to go down as one of the biggest fighters,” Murray said. “He’s come back so many times from losing positions, and he almost did the same again today. So that made it extra tough, and I don’t know how I managed to squeeze through in the end.”
It has not been 77 years since a British player won at Wimbledon. Virginia Wade won the women’s singles titles in 1977 (the sevens were a numerologists’ feast Sunday).
But the British men - from Bunny Austin to Tim Henman - kept swinging and missing until Murray finally arrived:a once-in-a-generation talent from the unlikely tennis destination of Dunblane, Scotland. It is a small city better known for tragedy than victory until Murray’s achievements because of a massacre at Murray’s own primary school in 1996 in which a gunman shot and killed 16 students, all 5 or 6, and one of their teachers.
Murray has rarely discussed the episode, but it has been a subtle driving force for him and his tennis family, which includes his older brother Jamie, once a leading doubles player, and their mother Judy, a former professional player who is now Britain’s Fed Cup captain.
“It’s just nice that I’ve been able to do something that thetown is just proud of,” Andy Murray said between tears in a BBC documentary about his life that was broadcast shortly before these championships.
But Murray is making a habit of making all of Britain proud, and if Sunday’s final seemed to lack the full-force emotional impact that a 77-year wait would suggest, that is also because of Murray’s achievements in the last year.
Only a few weeks after losing in last year’s Wimbledon final, he came back to win the Olympic gold medal on the same stretch of lawn at the All England Club. A few weeks after that, he won his first Grand Slam singles title - after four straight losses in finals - at the U.S. Open.
But Wimbledon was still, as ever, the big one, and the Murray who returned to this year was a more settled, confident young man. It showed, above all, in the final, even though there were a few frights along the way: including a nervy comeback from a two-set deficit in the quarterfinals to defeat the unseeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.
Murray’s draw turned into a stroll after former champions Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, who were both in his half of the draw, were upset before the third round.
But Murray still had to deal with greatness of Djokovic, who had beaten him 11 times in 18 matches and three times in a row: most recently in thefinal of the Australian Open.
They were born just one week apart and have known each other since they were juniors on the European circuit, first playing at age 11. Their games and skills and athleticism are now similar enough that to watch them play is to watch equal forces canceling each other out.
The rallies were long and exhausting Sunday; the territory excruciatingly difficult to conquer. This straight-set match lasted a lengthy 3 hours 9 minutes for a reason, and the terms of engagement were clear from the very first point: a lengthy, deliberate exchange of baseline blows.
On the court where the serve and the ace once ruledin men’s tennis, Djokovic and Murray combined for 30 break points and 11 breaks of serve: four for Djokovic and seven for Murray.
The difference was in the details: serves that landed in the corners instead of in what the British call “the tramlines”; half-volleys that hit the net and tumbled over for a winner.
Murray was much more effective with his first serve: winning 72 percent of the points to Djokovic’s 59 percent. And Djokovic, more often the aggressor than the defender was also not nearly as effective as he needed to be when he decided to swallow hard, take the risk and attempt to unlock an extended point.
Djokovic, who led 4-1 in the second set and 4-2 in the third set, also looked less spry and energetic than usual. He has recovered so often and so well from marathon matches that it now seems surprising when he does not, but his spectacular five-set, nearly five-hour semifinal victory over Juan Martin del Potro on Friday appeared to exact a toll.
“It took a lot out of me,” Djokovic said, emphasizing that he was not looking for excuses. “I’ve been in these situations before. I felt OK. Maybe physically, because I didn’t feel maybe I had enough gas in the important moments, I went for my shots more than usual.”
Meanwhile, Murray was running down drop shot after drop shot in the final stages: hitting passing shots on the stretch and making the road back look like the road from Everest base camp to Djokovic.
It never looked easy, just as Wimbledon has never felt easy to Murray since he first played in the main draw at age 18.
“It’s hard, really hard,” said Murray, who earned $1.6 million pounds, a private message from the queen and a long-awaited invitation to the champion’s black-tie dinner. “For the last four or five years, it’s been very tough, very stressful, a lot of pressure.”
But now, after 77 years and a whole lot of strawberries and cream, the pressure has been released.
Whatever will the British talk about next year?
Information for this article was contributed by the Associated Press.
Best of the Brits
Results of men’s singles championship round matches with British competitors since 1921: 1932 Bunny Austin lost to Ellsworth Vines, United States, 6-4, 6-2, 6-0.
1934 Fred Perry def. Jack Crawford, Australia, 6-3, 6-0, 7-5.
1935 Fred Perry def. Gottfried von Cramm, Germany, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.
1936 Fred Perry def. Gottfried von Cramm, Germany, 6-1, 6-1, 6-0.
1938 Bunny Austin lost to Don Budge, United States, 6-1, 6-0, 6-3.
2012 Andy Murray lost to Roger Federer, Switzerland, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.
2013 Andy Murray def. Novak Djokovic, Serbia, 6-4, 7-5, 6-4.
Sports, Pages 13 on 07/08/2013