Today there was a parade in London to celebrate and congratulate the heroic exploits of our Olympians and Paralympians with everybody (including me) cheering their performances throughout the summer but as the Paralympic flame was handed over to the representatives of Rio, it seemed many took it as a sign that this golden summer of British sport was over.
I think a certain Scotsman in New York would have a few things to say about that, as tonight Andy Murray looks to make that elusive breakthrough and win his first grand slam at the US Open.
While Murray may well be facing defending champ, world no.1 and favourite Novak Djokovic, since his Olympic success there has been a noticeable lift in Murray’s game, temperament and confidence, hopefully the culmination of all those things tonight will see him win a grand slam at the fifth attempt.
While Murray has had great seasons before winning several tournaments and reaching the semi-finals/finals of majors etc, 2012 is the first time he’s reached two in a year and this is no doubt due to the work of his new coach Ivan Lendl who joined the Murray camp at the start of the year.
He has urged Murray to be more aggressive, and while it’s only a relatively small change, it has made a huge difference as his results since the French Open indicate.
This coupled with the fact that Djokovic isn’t in the invincible form of last year, for me makes this Murray’s best chance yet to join the list of grand slam winners, and if we are treated to a match like the one we saw at the Australian Open, then we’ll be in for a classic, and a very late night.
If (and it’s a big if) he does prevail tonight the boost he’ll get from it could see him kick on, win many more and join his contemporaries as one of the games all-time greats.
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