Rob McLean - Murray must seize the moment
No pressure Andy Murray. John McEnroe, Andre Agassi, Agassi's old coach and every Tom, Dick and Harry are picking you to win your first Grand Slam, thus ending 74 years of British hurt.
Murray believes he can do it, the media believe it, and my daughters are also convinced. So just do it, get a grip and put us out of our misery.
If he fails, then we have moved into part three of his career which is Henman territory. Sorry Tim, I know, six Grand Slam semi-finals, not a word of thanks and they still mock.
The initial excitement of Henman breaking through against Yevgeny Kafelnikov in 1996 at Wimbledon made way for a feeling of impending doom as we crowded around our TV sets every year at work in the vain hope that Tim might convert a big point and reach a final.
It will be the same for Murray if he fails, as expectation is slowly replaced by the plaintive cries of 'will he ever etc'.
But the omens look good. This is Murray's 17th Grand Slam and Roger Federer won his first at the 17th attempt just as people were beginning to doubt that he could make the breakthrough.
In addition this is the most open Australian Open in a generation with as many as 12 players in the frame. No one is clear favourite and there are question marks over all the leading contenders, not least Federer and Rafael Nadal, who haven't won a title for five and eight months respectively.
The bad news is that Murray has never been past the fourth round and will probably have to beat Juan Martin del Potro, Nadal and Federer in succession to win the title.
Melbourne has a history of throwing up surprise finalists but hopefully it won't happen this year and Murray will produce his very best when it matters because that could be enough.
And the other contenders: Fernando Verdasco, hard-hitting, but can he string together two or three performances?; Nikolay Davydenko, the form player, suspect stamina in best of five set events; Del Potro still in a daze since his first Slam in the US; Novak Djokovic, won here before, but which Serbian will turn up, the world-weary or the fired up one?; Robin Soderling is on a roll but ditto with Verdasco; Andy Roddick is fresh from a tournament win and has the serve, but his Wimbledon heroics may have been his last hurrah.
As for the women, picking a winner is just as hard. Already Maria Sharapova, the former champion, is out. Will the Belgians maintain their stunning comebacks? Can the Williams sisters rise to the occasion yet again?
Whatever happens, the British No 1, Elena Baltacha, whose career has been punctuated by injury and serious illness, has already done herself justice and is through to the second round.
Since Fred Perry all those years ago we have had many British false dawns. Roger Taylor, Mark Cox, John Lloyd, Buster Mottram, Jeremy Bates, Greg Rusedski, Tim Henman, you all took a hell of a beating, as a Norwegian football commentator might have said.
So anything less than a semi-final place would be a huge setback for the current British No 1. The moment of truth has arrived.
EARLY MORNING MURRAY WATCH: Set my alarm for 4am to watch his opening match – all his matches are on terrestrial TV – overslept and eventually got up to find he was cruising against qualifier South African Kevin Anderson. One down, six to go.
Date published :
19 Jan 2010 - 10:04:40
