It is fitting that in the competition where Andy Murray’s glory years really began, he will also bring the curtain down on his glorious career at the top end of men’s tennis.
Who could ever forget that afternoon on centre court back in 2012, when just weeks after having his heart broken by the same opponent on the same patch of grass in the Wimbledon final, Murray smashed through his personal glass ceiling by defeating Roger Federer to win the gold medal for Team GB?
It wasn’t the prize he really wanted, of course, but that victory finally gave Murray the belief that he could not only compete with the ‘big three’, but that he could beat them on the biggest stages the game had to offer.
Prior to that Olympic victory, Murray had contested four Grand Slam finals, and lost them all. After winning the gold medal, he went on to defeat Novak Djokovic in the joint-longest US Open men’s final in history (he rarely made it easy viewing for his fans, after all) in September, and then the following summer, he put Djokovic away rather more convincingly to finally end the 77-year-long wait for a British man to win Wimbledon.
Murray will compete in his fifth, and final, Olympic games then this summer, confirming yesterday that the event in Paris will also be his swansong.
"Arrived in Paris for my last ever tennis tournament," Murray wrote on Twitter/X.
"Competing for Team GB has been by far the most memorable weeks of my career and I'm extremely proud to get to do it one final time!"
Tennis is often framed as a lonely, individual pursuit, where competitors are forced to wring the best from within themselves if they are to conquer the game. But in truth, Murray has always seemed to thrive, and be more at home, in the team environment.
His Olympic triumphs (he also won the gold medal after seeing of Juan Martin Del Potro in Rio in 2016) were victories hewn of his own hand, of course, but he has always seemed at ease as part of a cog in a larger machine, and it has often seemed to bring the best out in him.
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As well as his exploits as part of Team GB, Murray was pushed to produce arguably the greatest performance in Davis Cup history when he led the British team to an unlikely triumph in 2015, at a point when he was at the peak of his powers, and right at the top of tennis.
Perhaps, during this time, he pushed himself too far. His quest to become the number one tennis player in the world was fulfilled after winning his second Wimbledon title in 2016, and finishing the season in November of that year at the top of the rankings after reaching the final of the Paris Masters.
But climbing that mountain to sit atop the likes of Djokovic, Federer and Rafael Nadal came at a cost. He spent 41 weeks at the summit, but while his spirit was never lacking, his body began to let him down.
There was a tearful admission at the Australian Open that he might not be able to continue playing the game at all due to the searing pain his hip was causing him. He stood awkwardly on court as video tributes from the world’s best players were played over the big screen, but the obituaries for his career were to prove premature.
Murray, as was well apparent by then, was made of the sternest of stuff, and despite a partial hip replacement, he somehow scrapped his way back to not only compete once again in the professional game, but to crack the top 50.
That was never likely to be enough to satisfy Murray, though, and while he limped on – quite literally, at times – and fought to continue playing the game he loves, he has now finally admitted defeat at the age of 37.
But Murray has faced defeat before, and never been daunted. And we all await to see how he will now build upon his incredible legacy beyond his playing days. He has long been a role model away from the court, speaking out fearlessly on issues like doping and, particularly, equality, where he has been held up as an unflinching ally of female professionals and the women’s game.
He has already inspired perhaps a couple of generations of tennis players from Britain and beyond, and with news this week that the LTA have granted £5m in funding towards a proposed community tennis and sports centre to celebrate the achievements of Andy, brother Jamie and the driving force behind them, mum Judy, at Park of Keir near Dunblane, it finally seems that his legacy will be honoured in a fitting way.
It may be too much to hope that his career is bookmarked in the most fitting manner too, with a third gold medal perhaps a bridge too far, even for Murray. No matter.
Murray is a winner, no matter how it all ends in Paris, and arguably the best that these isles have ever produced.
