Since 1936, No British man had ever won a Grand Slam.
Many British players (male) tried but failed to repeat this attempt. When Andy Murray started playing, people had high hopes from this young player until reality struck them. Whenever he lost, he was the Scot who didn't have it in him to win a Grand Slam and whenever he won, he was the proud British.
Fast forward : 10 Sep'2012 - Andy Murray defeated Novak Djokovic ( the best hard court player in the world ) in an epic 5 set match : 7-6, 7-5, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2.
Who would have thought this was possible? John McEnroe had already declared Djokovic as a huge favorite before the finals even started and so did many others. But then how did this 25 year old Brit/Scot achieve the impossible?
"One brick at a time" - That's what I have always believed in. And today's victory reaffirmed my belief.
After being labeled as the best talent to have never won a single Grand Slam, here he is standing tall and proud with his first US Open title. It all started when he hired Ivan Lendl as his coach. That was the first brick he took out from his goal. He turned Andy Murray from a Boy to a Man. Murray's Australian Open Semi Final loss in 5 sets was just the beginning of the process of making the diamond shine even in the darkest of the moments. Match by match, Lendl started to work on the mental aspect of his prodigy urging him to go for his shots and become the aggressor in the matches.
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm” -Winston Churchill. And that's what became evident in the matches Andy played. Voila, he reached his first Grand Slam final of the year and everything changed for him that day. The world saw an emotional teary eyed Andy in the speech ceremony. He fought hard, he tried and he cried in front of his home crowd which showed how much it meant to him playing in the finals.
From that moment, we saw a different Murray who two weeks later stepped on the same court to start his crusade of winning his first major title of his career: Olympic Gold. The manner he did it surprised many as he defeated Roger Federer ,arguably the greatest player in tennis history in straight sets. Federer said afterwards that Andy Murray had this coming since long.
It was not just another Gold Medal for Murray, it was a testimony of the hard struggle he had to go through to reach that stage. It was a moment which made him believe in himself more than ever. It was a gold medal which took off tremendous pressure off his shoulders as the lone Brit trying to do the impossible.
The result of the Olympic Gold was evident as it propelled him to reach his 5th Grand Slam final. This time, history was to be repeated today. Lendl who won his first Grand Slam in his 5th final, so did Andy Murray. From choker to the winner of a Grand Slam, Andy Murray relived his coach's life right in front of Lendl's eyes.
The biggest lesson for me from Andy Murray's victory is the way he has ascended the stairs to achieve his dream. It's not a Cinderella story by any means. It's a story of a man who has worked hard enough to encounter failures over and over again to only make him stronger than before and work even harder to achieve his dream. In adversity, the true character gets built and that's what he has shown to us. He has been able to achieve his dream by taking small steps one by one after years of hardships: 4 Grand Slam finals loss, 10 years of hardships, always being criticized by media and people, disappointments and disappointments over and over again.
There are moments in our life when we think it's not possible to overcome destiny or to overcome the obstacles we face or to overcome the repeated failures that we have encountered. What we do is blame others for the outcome and stop trying? Imagine if in the presence of Federer, Nadal & Djokovic : Andy Murray would have given up his hopes, dreams, ambition?Instead of getting awed by the obstacles, break down your goals in small steps if you want to achieve it., toughen up mentally to show your true potential rather than getting bogged down by others - The way Murray did.
Ivan Lendl, Training, Wimbledon Final, Olympic Gold and now after today, 4 hours 54 minutes of battle, Us Open Champion - Andy Murray.
"ONE BRICK AT A TIME" guys. That's all from my side.
For any questions or feedback, You can contact me at apekshaha@gmail.com