Andy Murray is now known as one of the greatest British tennis players in history.
Murray retired at the Paris Olympics last year, bringing an end to his 19-year professional career.
The Briton was particularly successful at Queen’s Club as a five-time former champion, and Murray has now had centre court named after him.
However, after he won his first Queen’s title in 2009, Murray pointed something out about Wimbledon that he thought a lot of people were unaware of.
What Andy Murray said people didn’t understand about Wimbledon in 2009
Murray beat James Blake to win his first grass court title at the Queen’s Club Championships in 2009 without dropping a single set.
This also made Murray the first British man to win the Queen’s singles title in 71 years.
As the world number three at the time, this only heightened the expectation around Murray ahead of Wimbledon.
When asked about his chances ahead of Wimbledon, Murray spoke in his winning Queen’s press conference about the pressures of being a British player during the grass court season.
While he backed himself to challenge for the Wimbledon title, Murray suggested that there were some misconceptions about how difficult it is to win the prestigious tournament, especially with Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer ranked ahead of him.
“Yeah. I mean, I don’t think — I don’t think it’s impossible, and I go into every tournament with that sort of mentality that, you know, I can win the event and, you know, for me, if I make the, you know, quarter-finals, semi-finals of a Grand Slam, I don’t view it as being, you know, a terrible tournament,” explained Murray.
“But I go on with the mentality that I’m going to win it, and, you know, I’ll have to play — it will have to be my best tennis ever to do it. I mean, so it’s so difficult to do. That’s why no one in Britain’s done it for such a long time, because it is that difficult.
“I think that, you know, a lot of people don’t understand how tough it is. And especially right now with the guys that are in front of me in the rankings, and even the ones that are just behind me, there are some great players out there. In my opinion, they’re the two best ever. I think they’ll have the most Grand Slam titles between them.
“They’ve competed in so many and won so many of the big tournaments the last few years. So I’m going to have to beat them if I want to do that. That’s not an easy thing to do. And even if I’m playing great, I can still lose that match, so yeah, like you say, a lot of variables.”
How did Andy Murray perform at Wimbledon in 2009?
Murray would go on to enjoy his best Grand Slam tournament at Wimbledon in 2009, reaching the semi-finals for the first time.
However, that is where he would come up against former US Open champion Andy Roddick, who beat Murray in a four-set semi-final.
Despite ending the run of Murray, Roddick was beaten by Federer in the 2009 Wimbledon final and would never win the grass court major.
| Wimbledon 2009 | Andy Murray’s Result |
| First Round | Murray beat Robert Kendrick, 7-5 6(3)-7 6-3 6-4 |
| Second Round | Murray beat Ernest Gulbis, 6-2 7-6 6-3 |
| Third Round | Murray beat Viktor Troicki (30), 6-2 6-3 6-4 |
| Fourth Round | Murray beat Stan Wawrinka (19), 2-6 6-3 6-3 5-7 6-3 |
| Quarter-finals | Murray beat Juan Carlos Ferrero, 7-5 6-3 6-2 |
| Semi-finals | Andy Roddick (6) beat Murray, 6-4 4-6 7-6(7) 7-6(5) |
While Roddick could never lift the title at SW19, Murray would win Wimbledon in 2013 to become the first British man to lift their home Grand Slam tournament in 76 years.
Murray would win Wimbledon again in 2016, ending his career as a three-time major champion with the 2012 US Open.
The pressure is now no longer on Murray to carry the weight of the nation’s hopes at Wimbledon, with world number six Jack Draper the big British hopeful in 2025.
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