Are you familiar with those identikit trailers so beloved of Sky Movies? The ones, dictated in a subterranean gravelly voice, that say “Only one man can (delete as applicable) defeat the aliens / save the president / stop the serial killer”?
I mention the trailers because we encountered a very specific “Only one man” situation in British sport. It related to Wimbledon, and the 77-year wait between homegrown male champions. For all Tim Henman’s best efforts, there really was “only one man” for this job. And that man was a gangly Scot with a monotone voice and an unquenchable will to win.
When Murray defeated Novak Djokovic in the 2013 Wimbledon, he pulled off the ultimate feat in British sport. He slayed the dragon and pulled the sword from the stone in one fell swoop. F1 champions, world-beating track-and-field athletes, great golfers – they come and go. But Wimbledon is the centrepiece of the British sporting summer, the most prestigious annual event there is. And Murray had to win it on his own, with no team-mates to help him. There was even a rule that prevented him consulting his coach Ivan Lendl in the stands.
Of course, Murray is so much more than just a double Wimbledon champion. He is also the most successful singles player in the history of the Olympics, a former world No1 in an age of giants, and an intelligent, grounded man with a broad perspective on life. But for that feat alone, for breaking a jinx that extended all the way back to Fred Perry in the late 1930s, he has to be Britain’s greatest sportsperson.