Britons are slow to embrace genius but winning the BBC award for a third time underscores the Scot’s right to be considered our greatest athleteAnyone But Murray, eh? The ABM meme could hardly seem more tatty and irrelevant now, seven years after it was spawned with spite and ignorance, before the difficult Scot had proved Little Englanders and other snipers wrong with his eloquent tennis racket.Instead, the question that is now being asked – and answered in the affirmative – across nearly every media platform is an uplifting one: is Andy Murray this country’s greatest-ever athlete? Related: Andy Murray concerned about father’s wedding, not knighthood or Spoty title Related: How Andy Murray chased down Novak Djokovic to end 2016 on...
Tennis’s white-hot favourite collects Sports Personality of the Year award but the triathlete Alistair Brownlee surprises with his second place‘The people have spoken ... the bastards,” a waspish Dick Tuck observed following his failure to make the California State Senate in 1966. At the end of a year in which electorates throughout the UK and beyond have proved time and again they simply cannot be trusted to make even the simplest choice, it is a sentiment with which BBC panjandrums were happy not to concur at the end of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year beano in Birmingham on Sunday night.They had been utterly terrified the Great British Public would select a one‑two-three of Andy Murray, Mo Farah and...
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...