Monday 9 July 2012

Andy Murray

People have completely missed the point re Andy Murray and Wimbledon. Singles tennis is not an international representative sport but an individual one. All the phone-in guff about whether one should or shouldn't support him because he's Scottish/British or roots for "anyone-but-the-English" at football, is redundant.

So, too, is the X-Factor-isation of the issue, the nauseating trend which has reduced seemingly every aspect of life, politics included, to a popularity contest (don't get me started on David Beckham and Team GB).

Dour, blubbing, Scottish or otherwise, I like Murray. That a UK passport-holder was beaten by a man of joint Swiss/South African nationality (they always forget that bit) detracts from both the magnificence of Federer and the fact that most serious champions have already won a hatful of titles by 25, the age at which Murray is regarded by dilettantes as "still young" (Borg had retired by then with 11 Slams in his pocket).

The way I see it, amid all the nationalistic hoo-ha and associated drivel, there was only one winner on Centre Court yesterday — Alex Salmond.

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