Whatever happens from here, whoever lifts the men’s singles trophy a week on Sunday, this Wimbledon belongs to Andy Murray.
His beautifully choreographed Centre Court sendoff on Thursday night was neither a final nor a victory, yet somehow it felt like both. At the time, it wasn’t even a farewell, given that Murray was entered in the mixed doubles with Emma Raducanu – although that has changed now that Raducanu has withdrawn from their scheduled first-round match.
It remains to be seen whether Raducanu, who said she woke up with stiffness in her right wrist following her third-round win over Maria Sakkari, will suffer a backlash over her decision. After undergoing surgery on both wrists last summer, and with the chance to reach a first Wimbledon quarter-final on the line when she faces Kiwi qualifier Lulu Sun on Sunday, her caution will be understandable to many. Then again, her partner has a metal hip, suffered ruptured ankle ligaments only a few months ago, and had surgery on his spine on the eve of Wimbledon. Were the roles reversed, it is hard to imagine anything would have prevented Murray from taking to the court.
The mood in the Murray camp seems clear. When broadcaster Marcus Buckland described Raducanu’s withdrawal as “astonishing” in a social media post, Murray’s mother, Judy, replied: “Yes, astonishing.” Ultimately, though, perhaps it is more fitting that Murray’s Wimbledon career ended alongside his older brother, Jamie, on a midweek night that felt more like the second Sunday.
All the hallmarks of a final were in evidence. The rapturous, prolonged standing ovation. The address to the crowd. The televised walk back to the locker room, applauded by the great and the good of the All England Club, before a pause to wave to the assembled throng outside Centre Court from the walkway leading to the millennium building. Murray, twice a champion on the grass of Wimbledon, has done it all before, of course. But never quite like this. The beauty of the occasion lay partly in treating him as though he had just won a third title.
In reality, of course, it was just an opening-round doubles match, one the Murrays lost in straight sets to the Australian pairing of Rinky Hijikata and John Peers. But that was immaterial. It was a night for reliving past glories with family, friends and fans, not for dwelling on the realities of the present.
To that end, Sue Barker, another national treasure, resurfaced from retirement to conduct one last Centre Court interview with Murray, just as she had done after each of his three finals. The look of astonishment on the brothers’ faces when she appeared was priceless. So too was the initial tremor of emotion in Barker’s voice. As always, she captured the mood perfectly.
The video montage that followed, which interspersed footage of Murray’s greatest moments with contributions from Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Venus Williams, left nary a dry eye in the house. Up in the stands, Judy and Kim, Murray’s wife, struggled to contain their emotions. Down on the court, Jamie fared little better. The one person who held it together, for the most part at least, was Murray. He had earlier left the court to compose himself for what was to come, and although he wiped away a tear as the crowd gave him an ovation that felt like it would never end, this was not a repeat of his speech after losing the 2012 final to Federer – even if he did use similar words, reflecting that “it wasn’t easy” to come back and win the following year.
“I did find it pretty stressful to be honest with you,” said Murray. “But I obviously had an amazing team of people around me, supporting me through all of that.
“The crowd support obviously made a huge difference. Playing at home is a huge advantage in all sports, and I used it that day. Novak [Djokovic] had an off-day, obviously. I just managed to get over the line. I didn’t really actually enjoy it as much as I should’ve done. I just found the whole thing very, very stressful.”
He will have found his conversation with Barker barely less so. The obvious parallels with Federer’s tearful farewell interview with Jim Courier at the 2022 Laver Cup were accentuated by the on-court presence of a stellar array of former Wimbledon champions –Djokovic, John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, Conchita Martínez and also Lleyton Hewitt, after whom one of Murray’s dogs is named. This being Wimbledon, there was also a British contingent comprising of Jack Draper, Cameron Norrie, Dan Evans and Tim Henman (although, curiously, not Jamie Delgado, Murray’s former coach, or Laura Robson, alongside whom he won a mixed doubles silver medal at the London Olympics, both of whom looked on from the wings).
Fittingly, given Murray’s steadfast support for the women’s game throughout his career, Iga Swiatek, the world No 1, was also in the line-up, as was Holger Rune, the Danish world No 15, with whom he played doubles in Brisbane this year.
The moments that threatened to tip Murray over the edge – talk of his family, and of the injury-plagued conclusion to his journey in the sport – were also redolent of Federer’s farewell. Yet Murray’s dry wit and raw honesty ensured the occasion remained uniquely his own. It is hard to imagine Federer recounting quite so many tales about vomiting. The final-that-wasn’t will linger in the memory beside Murray’s other Centre Court highlights, another remarkable chapter in his Wimbledon story. Short of winning the title, nothing he might have achieved alongside Raducanu would have come close.
“When the video was playing, my head was spinning a lot, because I know I’m about to have to speak,” said Murray. “It’s difficult in those moments, because there’s a lot of people you want to thank and address, but it’s also not easy, it’s pretty emotional.
“Watching the video was nice, but hard as well for me, because you know it’s coming to the end of something that you’ve absolutely loved doing for such a long time. So that’s difficult.
“It was really nice that a lot of the players stayed. I obviously have very close and good relationships with the British guys that were there, but there were also a number of players there on that court that I’ve got enormous respect for, some of the greatest players in the history of the game, so it was really nice that they stuck behind, because we did finish quite late.”
It was the least he deserved. There has been so much noise around Murray on his final visit to the All England Club as a player, so many questions and doubts and what-ifs following his recent back surgery. Play or don’t play; singles, doubles, mixed; injured, fit, somewhere in between. In the end, none of it mattered. Murray’s legacy in these parts was secure from the moment a Djokovic backhand nosedived into the net 11 summers ago, signalling the end of Britain’s 77-year wait for a Wimbledon champion.
What followed will forever live on in the national consciousness, a series of freeze-frame mental images drenched in passion and joy and catharsis. Murray’s racket seemingly suspended in mid-air as he turned to the crowd to celebrate. Kim holding her head in wide-eyed disbelief. Judy crying on the shoulder of Leon Smith, the British Davis Cup captain, then almost finding herself overlooked when Murray failed to spot her after clambering into the players’ box.
Eleven years on, Murray’s daughters Sophia and Edie, the two eldest of his four children, have a moment of their own to remember. This was their final, the moment when Wimbledon belonged to their father in a way it has rarely, if ever, belonged to anyone. Defeat notwithstanding, it was a perfect ending.
“I’m ready to finish playing,” said Murray. “I don’t want that to be the case, I would love to play forever. But like today, even though it was a doubles match where physically it’s not as demanding, it was still really hard for me.
“This year’s been tough, with the ankle, the back surgery, obviously the hip. I’m ready to finish playing because I can’t play to the level that I would want to any more. That’s something that I guess is a bit out of my control. If I knew that my body was going to be able to do it, I would play.
“But I know that it’s time now, and I’m ready for that.”