Well, I was wrong. well done to Andy Murray. The monkey is well and truly off his back now.
A great win. Well done Murray. Lendel has to get a little credit as well.
Good man, he’s the only one of the other players who can live on regular basis with the top three. I never doubted he had the game, it was always the mental step that was missing. Lendl seemed to fix that and a Wimbledon final, olympic gold and a major are the result.
He would’ve been bar far the best player never to win one, no need for that stat now.
And the winners of the four majors this year? Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, Murray. I bet Andy feels he properly belongs to that list now.
Such a great finals for both men and women. So thrilled for Andy Murray on his first major. Even though his body language was negative at times (he so reminds me so much of Pete Sampras), his mental fortitude was very impressive. When Nole pours it on, it’s nearly impossible to stop him.
Can’t wait for the Aussie Open and the hopeful return of Rafa. Love watching these battles of the titans.
P.S. Oh, and taking a massage timeout when you’re opponent is one game away from sealing the match? Bad form, Novak. Bad form.
Who is the best player to never win one now? Todd Martin, maybe?
Marcelo Rios was the first one to come to mind for me, since he’s the only guy to get to #1 and never win a major.
Wasn’t Rios a one surface guy? I’d imagine someone like Tim Henman would beat him most of the time except on clay, where Henman would have been whomped.
Well done to Andy Murray - bastard just lost me a bet though. Back when Henman was struggling I bet a mate that the next British men’s GS Tennis Champion had not yet been born. Looked a decent enough bet at the time, as we weren’t exactly developing champions through the system. Unfortunately for me, Murray stepped out of the system to get good…
Rios was 2-2 against Henman on non-clay (all hard-court matchs).
Not really, 7 hardcourt titles, 2 carpet, 9 clay. Best result was the aussie open finals.
I stand corrected. Good knowledge from one and all.
I guess that match shows that if you’re going to choke, best to do it early in the match rather than at the end - a truism, perhaps, but having had limited experience of this sort of thing myself, I think throwing a set away early on that you should have won can make you stronger in the endgame. Great effort from Andy, though of course if anything it will just increase the pressure on him next year, at Wimbledon at least.
It would’ve been a lot worse if he had just lost another major final. One of the interesting question at the 2013 majors is going to be whether Murray can relax a little bit and what that might do for his game. There is even more reason to think he could win Wimbledon next year - and even if he’d lost this one, he made the Wimbledon final and won the Olympics - but the expectations won’t be coupled with that “is he ever going to win one?” thing or all of the talk about how Britain hasn’t had a man win a major title since before World War II. I’m sure British fans want to see him win Wimbledon more than any other event, but it won’t be all pressure. Imagine what the fans are going to sound like when he takes the court for the first time next year.
In case anyone was wondering about the rankings: Federer opens up a slightly bigger lead on Djokovic, and Murray has moved ahead of Nadal to get to #3. The only other change in the top 10 is that Berdych is now 6th and Tsonga is 7th instead of vice-versa.
I never got around to offering a final thought on Roddick and I’ve talked about his career at length in other threads, but in passing, the guy had a seriously great run. He had one of the hardest and most accurate serves in the history of the sport, won a Grand Slam event, reached three other major finals, was one of the youngest players to become #1 in the world, finished his career by winning at least one title in 12 straight seasons, was in the year-end top 10 for nine years in a row, and also had a very strong Davis Cup record, including the U.S.'s last championship in 2007. While he could come off as a jerk at times, I think he deserves credit for being honest and funny as well. The Wimbledon 2009 final and his 2003 Australian Open quarterfinal against El-Aynaoui were both amazing. He did everything in his capability to adapt and expand his game as the sport changed.
IMO Murray will break out, like Mickelson did after he won his 1st major.
If I have to be subject to any more Andy Murray than I already have been, I’ll be watching a lot less tennis.
Is he somehow overexposed? I wasn’t aware.
In my mind, prime David Nalbandian could (and did) beat the best in the world and make them look silly while doing so.
Such a waste of talent. I blame McDonald’s. 
Kudos to Andy for finally getting the monkey off his back. Well deserved. Sets up quite an interesting and level 2013 season…provided we get Rafa back.
He’d have to be on the list too, although I think that’s an exaggeration of how good he was. He has 11 career titles and finished in the top 10 five times, although he never finished a year higher than sixth. Nalbandian was a very strong player for a while, but he never made another major final after Wimbledon in 2002. He’s actually a few months younger than Federer is. Basically he didn’t win anything of consequence after he turned 26 because he couldn’t keep up with Federer and Nadal and the others, and his results were tailing off a little even then.
I think when you start looking at the past 6 years and totting up what the top 4 have done in terms of major finals, qtrs, semis, and title wins, there are few others out there even in the same league.
Indeed, and David Nalbandian, while good, was nowhere near as talented as Federer, Djokovic, and Nadal. And I guess Murray as well.
Tsonga is definitely heading toward “great, but no majors” as well. I love the guy, but he has yet to win one despite going very deep a few times.
Now the majors are over for the year, here is another discussion point:
**
Outside Thomas Johansson, who is the “worst” player to win a major? Men and women, if you like. **
And yes, please state if you think they are worse than Johansson.
Tsonga is very talented and exciting but he’s struggled to play seven quality matches in a row against the best players in the world. He’s come close a few times; that loss at Wimbledon this year was really tough. He’s going to be 28 next year and it’s hard not to think his opportunity is fading.