In praise of Andy Murray

I was amazed to hear today that Andy Murray, the world number two tennis player, has been severely criticised by David Lloyd. At first, I thought, the bloody cheek of it. The best British tennis player of my lifetime being attacked by dear old Bumble, who didn’t even play tennis. Ridiculous. But then I found out it wasn’t that David Lloyd, it was the former British tennis player David Lloyd with the criticism.

Yes, that David Lloyd, the Lloyd brother who wasn’t married to Chris Evert and wasn’t anywhere near as good a player as his brother, John. In fact, in world terms, David wasn’t really that good at all, rising to a stellar 128th in the world rankings at the very high point of his career. And what did he say about Andy Murray?

“The British players in recent years who have been good – Tim Henman, Greg Rusedski, Andy – they don’t in my opinion put enough back. I mean putting your heart and soul into it, a passion that is bigger than the person and even bigger than the game. It’s about getting a kid who wants to play for Manchester United to want to play tennis instead. Andy is in such an incredible position with power to do that but he doesn’t. I don’t think Andy does justice in presenting himself. I don’t think he goes out of his way to present the game.”

I am a Murray convert, someone who once, stupidly, fell for the line that Murray hated England because of a throwaway comment he made when he was young. I suspect I said far worse about Scotland when I was young, but then I wasn’t a world class tennis player whose every word would be dissected by a cynical and joyous media. I grew to love the lad. I get him now.

Because I have children (well, young men these days), I do have some connection wiv da yoof and unlike old codgers like David Lloyd, who because of his less than sensational playing career is a complete unknown to them, I see nothing but positives about Andy. In the words of Loyd Grossman, let’s look at the evidence:

Two time major winner
Olympic Gold Medal winner
BBC Sports Personality of the Year
Davis Cup winner (and he will be)
Loads more

But apparently he doesn’t go “out of his way to present the game”. He doesn’t? Is that because he is a world class tennis player in an era of great players, competing at the very highest level week in, week out?

Trading on the back of his name, David Lloyd has achieved a great deal, for David Lloyd. He’s worth hundreds of millions of pounds on the back of mediocrity in his chosen profession. Remind me what he has put back into the game? A big fat zero, if you ask me.

I know that there is much more to Andy Murray than the truly great tennis player we see on our screens. He is a great player and a great person. David Lloyd was definitely not the first and doesn’t seem to be the second either.

Don’t slag off Murray, but stand up and salute him. We may never see his like again. But for Djokovic, he might have won countless grand slams and maybe he still will. He will also bring us the Davis Cup at the weekend by winning three games, almost on his own, but he’d never say that.

He should be praised, he should be loved and, in the New Year’s Honours list, should become Sir Andy Murray. He’s a hero, a proper bona fide superstar. Unlike businessman and former world number 128 David Lloyd.