Andy Murray is seeking his first Australian Open after five defeats in the final while there are some famous dark horses lower down in the seedings1. Andy Murray Continue reading...
The BBC Sports Personality of the Year favourite endured a tough start to 2016 but became a father, reunited with Ivan Lendl and found himself on a phenomenal run of formWhen Gay Talese came to write the story of Floyd Patterson, he decided to call it The Loser. Which was an odd choice, since Patterson won a gold medal at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952 and the heavyweight championship of the world, twice. But then a champion’s legacy can be defined by the few contests he lost as well as the many he won. And Patterson was beaten twice by Sonny Liston, in the defining fights of his life, and twice more by Muhammad Ali. He was a great boxer...
The Scot has made the necessary improvements to his game and mentality in 2016 and, with rivals faltering, he can make his stay at the pinnacle a long oneAndy Murray has worked so hard to reach the top of his sport – which he marked emphatically by beating Novak Djokovic in straight sets on Sunday – that he intends to stay there for as long as he can. There is every chance he will still be No1 in the world when he returns to defend his Wimbledon title next June and he may even be Sir Andy by then.“When I was always fourth in the world, I never liked losing,” he said in the small hours after his 6-3, 6-4...
Scot shrugs off the tiredness that was expected to give Novak Djokovic the edge and leaves little doubt who is the top man in world tennisIt was framed as a question but it sounded more like a threat. Novak Djokovic was merrily destroying the hopelessly outmatched Kei Nishikori on Saturday night when a cry from the stands at the O2 Arena threw the narrative forward to the following evening: “Are you watching, Andy Murray?” Related: Andy Murray defeats Novak Djokovic to end year as world No1 Related: Andy Murray humble in victory against a magnanimous Novak Djokovic Continue reading...
The vitriolic reaction by some to the Scot becoming world No1 reflects coarsening attitudes where support for one side entails denigration of an opponentIf Donald Trump had been a tennis player, he would have been Jimmy Connors. Brash, bombastic, bullying, bludgeoning anything in his way, swollen with entitlement, constantly grabbing his crotch to assert his manhood. If there had been such a thing as Twitter in the 1970s, Connors would have set it on fire. I hated him.Well, I suppose I didn’t hate him, exactly. But I certainly very badly wanted Arthur Ashe to beat him on 5 July 1975, in the final of the Wimbledon men’s singles. In fact I wanted Ashe to humiliate him in the way that,...