Goodbye Andy Murray

This blog has always been focused on two things above all else: politics and movies.  That doesn't mean that we don't have other things that we discuss here.  This is not run for profit (mostly because I don't really know how to do that, and also because I don't think we have enough readers to make it worth it-share links of articles to prove me wrong!), so it is mostly a reflection of what I'm interested in at a given time.  That means that in the 4000+ articles on this blog, you're going to find some niche interests of mine intermingling the thousands of Oscars, movie, and politics discussions.  One of those interests is tennis, and while I'm way late (the Olympics have been over for over a week), I feel I would be remiss if I didn't commentate on the main reason I got into tennis in the first place: Andy Murray.

I started watching tennis in college.  My best friend Pat at the time was a tennis player for our college, and since I'm the kind of friend who supports their friends (my love language, to use common parlance about such things, is support), I went to a lot of tennis matches, and watched a lot of tennis in his dad's condo living room.  During that time, I figured if I'm going to be watching this, I should cheer for someone, and I was drawn to Andy Murray.  He was competitive (I'm competitive-this fit), incredibly hard on himself, but determined, and he had an athletic drive on the court that felt at-home.  While Roger Federer was graceful and Rafael Nadal was limber and Andy Roddick was just smoking hot, Murray felt like the kind of underdog that I could root for.

My love of tennis lasted longer than my friendship with Pat, and largely became a love of Andy Murray.  There were other players (like Federer and the Williams sisters) who captured my imagination, but it was Murray who beat them all when it came to my dedication.  I remember watching his first major final in 2008 when he competed against Federer at the US Open.  In the years that followed, I would never miss a single Grand Slam final for Murray in a singles match.

This meant a lot of heartbreak.  Unlike Federer, Nadal, or Djokovic, the three men he is frequently lumped with but is always very apparently in fourth compared toward in common parlance, Andy Murray never won a career grand slam.  There was a lot of heartache poured very early in the morning at Melbourne Park and Roland Garros as Murray couldn't finish those laps of the Grand Slam (he competed in a grand total of five Australian Open finals without a victory...as a devoted fan, this was the Great White Whale that I wanted most for him but he never got).  But it also meant that you got to be there for the big victories.  Exactly two times in my decades as an apartment renter did I hear my neighbors pound the walls for me being too loud.  One was TJ Oshie getting the Americans a victory over the Russians at the 2014 Winter Olympics (Oshie is a Minnesotan, and if you can tell from my Tim Walz posts, I have the affliction of many Minnesotans of loving watching other Minnesotans succeed).  The second was Murray winning the 2012 Wimbledon championship.  I was there, wearing my Murray shirt proudly, eating a bowl of strawberries-and-cream in honor of Wimbledon, screaming as he finally took the top prize.

As Murray's career began to fade, so did my love of tennis.  I realized as his career began to wind down (alongside the Williams sisters and Federer) that this was not going to be a lifelong love like movies or politics, but instead was a point-in-time, something that I knew for a while but eventually lost my interest with.  Seeing Murray play at one last Olympics (where he had his greatest professional successes, taking two Gold Singles medals, something no other man has done, though ardent feminist Murray would be quick to note that Serena & Venus both had four gold medals between them) was beyond special.  As he hangs up his racket, it's likely I hang up mine as a tennis fanboy...but I will remain forever an Andy Murray fan, the underdog who found glory for the dedicated & lucky fans who stuck by him.