As if competing for oneself wasn’t hard enough, try taking on the hopes and dreams of an entire nation—and in this case, the one that invented tennis.
Welcome to the life and times of Sir Andy Murray (he was knighted in 2019), who retired from professional tennis today at 37, after a quarterfinal loss in doubles at the Paris Olympics.
As of 2005, the year Murray turned 18, Great Britain had gone nearly 70 years without seeing one of its men earn a Grand Slam singles title. Having won the US Open junior title in 2004, Murray had been anointed his country’s next tennis savior.
Life as the Great British Tennis Hope is a relentless fishbowl. Wimbledon generates attention like nothing else in all of tennis: broadcast media from all corners, a globetrotting corps of tennis correspondents and then—most prying—tabloid publications that generally opt for the sellable angle of least resistance. Amid this potentially blinding spotlight, Murray crafted a Hall of Fame resume. He won three Grand Slam singles titles, including two at Wimbledon; played the lead role in Great Britain’s 2015 run to the Davis Cup title (its first since 1936); won two Olympic gold medals in singles (along with a silver in mixed doubles) and 46 ATP Tour singles titles; and attained a career-high ranking of No. 1 in the world.