Au revoir, Andy Murray

Just before the start of the Aussie Open, Andy Murray has announced his retirement due to injury. The response from the media and fellow pros has been overwhelmingly positive.  But I won’t miss him.

This is, I admit, manifestly unfair.  I don’t know Andy Murray, never met the guy.  Most of what I dislike him for is outside his control.  I’ve written before about my annoyance at the media's insistence of equating Murray with Federer, Nadal, and Djokovich by calling them the Big Four. 

The first three all have double digit Major wins; Murray had a paltry three.  Lumping them into a single unit was absurd, a case of “Which one of these things is not like the others?”  On top of that, Stan Warwinka also had three majors, so why isn’t it a Big Five?  You can’t include Murray and exclude Warwinka from any consideration of who are the top men’s tennis players.

I also dislike the movement to rename the slope at Wimbledon where people can watch matches on a large TV screen “Murray Mound” from the previous “Henman Hill.”  First, there is the fact that Murray is a Scotsman, not from England, and therefore England embracing him as a national champion smacks of opportunism.  Aussie Pat Cash won Wimbledon, why not count him as the last native Englander to win? 

The main thing I object to is the fact that when Murray won, he was one of the favorites while Tim Henman was barely a top ten player who was never going to win (barring a bus accident taking out half of the men’s top seeds).  Yet every year, for five or six years, he put his country on his back and went one round further than he had any right to expect.  So, let’s keep it Henmen Hill, please (I took a tour of Wimbledon last year, and they mention both names).

The reason that I dislike Murray that he does bear some responsibility for is his attitude while playing.  He doesn’t throw tantrums like Kyrios, Murray always displays decorum, but he doesn’t seem to be enjoying himself.  Maybe you think Roger Federer plays like an inhuman robot, and at times his technique does seem mechanical, but he does on occasion display joy.  Nadal is a grind it out kind of guy, but the same applies to him.  Djokovich had some behavior problems early in his career, but after he tamed them, he lived up to his nickname “Joker.”

Murray never looks like he is having a good time.  He’ll be up two sets to none, miss a tricky backhand, and yell at his racket for missing the shot.  He scowls through every match.  Bill James once said that Rickey Henderson was the only baseball player whom seemed like he would be happier as an auto mechanic if it paid as much as baseball; I feel the same way about Murray and tennis.

So, Murray is the first of the mythical “Big Four” to end his career with an injury.  Nadal’s punishing brand of tennis has taken its toll on him, and Djokovich hasn’t been the same since he held all four majors at once.  Time is even starting to catch up to Federer.  For all the accolades Federer has been given, people do not appreciate how amazing it is that he can play at the ultra-high level he does and NOT damage his body, as Nadal, Djokovich, Del Potro, Warwinka, and every other top 100 tennis player has.

Au revoir, Andy Murray!  Enjoy retirement.  Maybe you can start planning on coaching the British Davis Cup team to a victory.