The head
of British tennis believes Andy Murray’s Davis Cup victory can inspire our
nation of losers to forge ahead in life by piggybacking on the successes of
others.
Great
Britain yesterday landed its first Davis Cup triumph since the Norman Conquest
by beating Belgium in the final of the unpopular ball-hitting event.
Murray
was instrumental in the triumph, first teaming up with brother Jamie to defeat
the Poirot twins, Hercule and Dean, in the doubles on Saturday, before
clinching victory on Sunday by beating a box of Guylian chocolates in straight
sets.
It was
Murray's 47th win in this year’s Davis Cup campaign. In
contrast, no other British singles player has even won a point in a Davis Cup
match since Josef Goebbels double-faulted against Fred Perry in Britain’s clash
with Germany in 1934.
Murray is
now odds-on to claim the Team of the Year prize at the BBC Sports Personality
of the Year Awards.
However,
despite it clearly not being a team effort, Britain’s Davis Cup captain Leon
Smith praised the “team effort”, which he said had driven Britain to a
first Davis Cup triumph since the Mesozoic era.
“It was a
real team effort,” he said. “While Andy won the tennis matches,
everybody else did their bit.
"Dan Evans, for example, lost his matches so
quickly that he was able to do lots of sightseeing, which meant he had loads of
interesting anecdotes to share with the rest of the team. And while the tennis
was going on, James Ward was beating his score at Flappy Bird over and over again,
which really improved his morale, and I’m sure that had a knock-on effect on
the rest of the group, Andy included.”
The Chief
Executive of the Lawn Tennis Association, Michael Downey, offered a contrasting
view – following Britain’s first Davis Cup triumph since the emergence of
multi-celled organisms.
He said: “Winning
the Davis Cup was a fantastic achievement, and inevitably there will now be questions as to how we build on this momentum, to inspire the next generation
of Andy Murrays to get out there and play tennis.
“But I
think this is missing the point. Nobody’s going to be inspired to be like Andy
Murray. He’s actually quite good at tennis, which most people aren’t, and
presumably has to work hard and practice regularly to be successful. That’s not
going to inspire anybody.
"On the other hand, people will be inspired by what’s
happened to the likes of Dan Evans, Kyle Edmund and Dom Inglot. They can now
call themselves Davis Cup champions, despite the fact they’ve won as many
tennis matches this year as Leon from Gogglebox.”
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