Andy Murray was tired and emotional – in the old fashioned sense – after becoming the first player in the history of tennis at the Olympics to win back-to-back gold medals in Rio on Sunday night.
He beat the determined but ultimately exhausted Argentinian Juan Martín Del Potro in a tick over four hours, recovering from a mid-match wander to win 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 in front of an audience of nearly 10,000 fans who more closely resembled a football crowd.
Before heading to catch a late-night plane on the way to the Cincinnati Masters, where he is due to play this week before the US Open in a fortnight, he spoke of the draining effort of the match and the pride he took in creating tennis history.
And he wondered whether his young daughter, Sophia, might even be vaguely interested in his achievement when he eventually gets around to telling her.
“When she’s old enough I’ll try to tell what I’ve done in my job, if you can call it that,” he said matter-of-factly. “I’m sure there’ll be some videos somewhere so I can show her some of the matches – if she’s interested. Maybe she won’t be. A lot of the tennis players that I’ve spoken to have children, and they’re more interested in the other players than in their fathers. Wait and see.”
Murray has enjoyed the Olympic experience from the moment he led the Great Britain team into the Maracanã in the opening ceremony two Fridays ago, to seeing off the dangerous challenge of Del Potro, who beat Novak Djokovic in the first round and Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals.
“Getting to carry the flag at the opening ceremony was an amazing experience. It’s a great honour to get the opportunity to do that. I found that quite emotional. After the day I did it, I sort of had to regroup and get my mind on the matches. A match like that [the final] as well, the build up the last 10 days or so, it’s been very emotional. I’m just very happy to have got over the line. … I’m so tired.
“I didn’t see any of his matches until yesterday when he played Rafa. He obviously played at times tonight extremely well. He’s done amazing really to get back to playing and competing at this level, after all the issues he’s had with his wrists. Mentally, I can only imagine how frustrating that must have been to keep going through the same programme and to try and come back. It’s amazing he’s come back from it, but also back to the level he’s playing at just now. He deserves a lot of credit for that and he should be very proud. It’s not an easy thing to do.”
He was unable to say if this was his finest achievement.
“I’m really happy to have won tonight, but it’s not really for me to say that. I can’t really answer just now. Tonight’s one of the hardest matches I’ve had to play for a big title. The US Open final, I played Novak, when I won my first slam was very hard, but tonight I found it really difficult. Emotionally it was tough, physically it was hard. There were so many ups and downs in the match.”
Winning the gold in London four years ago was special, he agreed, but found it difficult to compare the two finals.
“That was the first time I’d won any sort of major event and it was a home Olympics. It was an amazing couple of weeks for me, that – after losing the Wimbledon final just a few weeks before. Like I said, this has been much harder than London. The match in the final there was fairly straight forward in terms of the scoreline, whereas tonight anything could have happened in play, breaks of serve all the time, so many ups and downs. Yes, this means a lot. But I won’t get to enjoy it as much, as I’ve got to play another match in 48 hours, unfortunately.”
Nor would he say if he deserved to be ranked ahead of the other acknowledged members of the Big Four: Djokovic, Nadal and Roger Federer, for having completed a unique double.
“I don’t think I am. I wasn’t thinking about that today when I was playing but the fact it hasn’t been done before shows that it’s very hard, so I’m very proud to have been the first one to have done that.
“It hasn’t been easy because a lot can happen in four years, especially in tennis. You have so many since things happening since London. I had back surgery since London as well. So many things can change. My ranking dropped a lot during that period. I’ve gone through some tough times on the court as well. A lot has changed since then. Happily I’m here to compete at the biggest event. I’ll try to keep going. Who knows about Tokyo, if I’m still playing in four years when I’m 33? I don’t imagine I’ll be playing the same level as now, but I’ll enjoy tonight’s win.”