Sunday, December 22, 2024

Grounded Andy Murray has been unlike anyone else to cover – and late-night interview proved it

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This intimidating game face was just one quirk of Murray’s very single-minded, very analytical brain. Even if he could be cutting at times (he once replied to my enquiry about an early loss at Queen’s with a very slow and sarcastic “panic stations”) he never came across as high and mighty. Unlike one or two of his colleagues, he did not seem to think he was better than you just because he could serve at 135mph.

In short, he has always been a gentleman off the court. Although even his stoutest defender would have to admit that he found it increasingly difficult to control his own impulses as soon as he entered the stadium. With the exception of Ivan Lendl – whom he always treated with respect – he became notorious for bawling out his coaches.

There was only one time, during my tenure, when relations between Murray and the press soured. (I was not around for his bantering “anyone but England” quip in relation to the 2006 World Cup, or the mini-storm that followed his equally flippant “we played like women” comment earlier that same year.)

That was in 2018, when half a dozen hacks flew to Brisbane on New Year’s Eve in order to report his comeback event after hip trouble. Within minutes of our plane touching down, the event announced his withdrawal.

In desperation, we tried to doorstep Murray at his hotel, only to receive a message from his agent saying, “He’ll speak to you tomorrow at the courts”. But when we piled into a courtesy car the next morning, the driver said: “You’ll never guess who I’ve just had in the back of my car. Andy Murray. And he was on his way to the airport.”

Cue panicked phone calls to try to work out where our meal ticket had gone. Tennis Australia did not know. Nor did the Lawn Tennis Association. Or even his own management agency. At this point, we took to our laptops in high dudgeon, calling Murray remote and secretive: an aimless wanderer.  Hell hath no fury like a journo scorned.

It took a conference call a couple of days later to clear the air. Murray was disappointed with our coverage, he said, describing it as “nasty”. Then he dropped a bombshell: he was speaking to us from a hospital bed, having decided to undergo an arthroscopy on the spot. It was only at the end of a half-hour chat, when he explained that he was about to have his dinner, that we realised that he was still in Australia, having chosen a surgeon at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Private Hospital.

Who would have thought that we would still be discussing Murray’s surgeries six years later? One can only hope that his patched-up body does not give him too much trouble in his post-retirement career. Murray deserves so much better. Not only has he brought unbounded joy to millions of British sports lovers, but we are talking about one of the most decent men in sport.

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