After beating Milos Raonic at Queens, the two came together again on Centre Court, to enthral a packed house and many more on Henman Hill.
Canadian, Raonic, who got to the final after edging an epic 5-set win against former Wimbledon champion, Roger Federer, had former pros Carlos Moya and John McEnroe working with him, whilst Murray had re-engaged with former player, Ivan Lendl, who guided him to his first Wimbledon success in 2013.
With the shock result of Novak Djokovic going out to American Sam Querrey, Murray was installed as favourite for the title for the rest of the week. Aside from a titanic battle with Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, Murray navigated his way to the final with ease, surpassing Thomas Berdych in the semi-finals.
A tight start to the final was established early on, as Raonic used his key big serve to flush out any opportunities Murray had to dismantle his opponent, who was making his grand slam final debut. Eventually at 3-3, Murray made his move and broke the world no.6 to seal the first set.
Raonic, couldn’t force many Murray mistakes as the second set unfolded with no breaks. A tie-break ensured which the Brit made count by taking it 7-1. If Raonic was to win his first grand slam title, he’d have to go 5-sets for the third time in a fortnight.
A brief opportunity arose in the third set, with 2 break points, but Murray soon cancelled that threat and with it, any last opportunity Raonic had of prizing himself back into the match. Another tie-break came and, unlike last month at Queens, where Raonic rattled Murray for half the match and took a set off him, this time Murray closed out his third Grand Slam title to the delight of his fans.
Afterwards, Murray reflected in what he had achieved and was sure to recognise it this time, as opposed to his first success three years earlier against Djokovic. “I feel happier this time. I feel more content this time. I feel like this was sort of more for myself more than anything, and my team as well. We’ve all worked really hard to help get me in this position.
“Last time it was just pure relief, and I didn’t really enjoy the moment as much, whereas I’m going to make sure I enjoy this one more than the others. You just kind of get dragged in all sorts of different directions afterwards. I want to spend this time with my family and my closest friends, the people that I work with. That’s who I want to be around right now. I’ll make sure I spend a lot of time with them over the next couple of days. Yeah, look forward to that.”
Murray, who goes to Brazil next month to defend his Olympic gold medal won at Wimbledon in 2012, has admitted that even though he will travel this week with the British Davis Cup team to face Serbia, he is unlikely to play in it.
“We are a team and whether I’m playing or not I’ll always try to support,” he added.
