The world was left as soon as once more surprised as Sir Andy Murray produced one of many all-time nice comebacks in his almost six hour thriller towards Thanasi Kokkinakis.
Both males did every part of their energy to win however a 3rd set blow up from the Aussie opened the door and the Brit stepped by means of, coming from two units down for a report eleventh time in his profession.
He moved previous Roger Federer, Boris Becker and Aaron Krickstein, every who had achieved the feat 10 occasions.
But whereas Murray is beloved around the globe as an absolute champion, he arrived within the fallacious period and has a declare because the fourth finest participant in tennis historical past.
While the Big Three of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are rightly locked in a debate because the GOATs of the sport, Murray is the perfect of the remainder, even when his report doesn’t fairly say that.
Although Nadal is on prime with 22, adopted by Djokovic on 21 and Federer on 20, Murray’s grand slam tally is method again in a five-way tie for 18th because of his three titles.
That is essentially as a result of Murray’s eight finals losses, together with 5 on the Australian Open.
He misplaced in 2010 to Federer, earlier than 4 occasions in six years to Djokovic.
In reality, in each grand slam he has gone to the quarterfinals or past, minus the grand slam he received, Murray has was knocked out by a member of the Big Three in 19 of 27 grand slams.
Murray grand slam losses in quarterfinals and past
— 8: Novak Djokovic: AO F 2011, AO SF 2012, AO F 2013, US QF 2014, AO F 2015, FO SF 2015, AO F 2016, FO F 2016
— 6: Rafael Nadal: W QF 2008, W SF 2010, FO SF 2011, W SF 2011, US SF 2011, FO SF 2014
— 5: Roger Federer: US F 2008, AO F 2010, W F 2012, AO QF 2014, W SF 2015,
— 2: Stan Wawrinka: US QF 2013, FO SF 2017
— 1: Fernando Gonzalez: FO QF 2009, Andy Roddick: W SF 2009, David Ferrer: FO QF 2012, Grigor Dimitrov: W QF 2014, Kei Nishikori: US QF 2016, Sam Querrey: W QF 2017
* Murray received US Open 2012, Wimbledon 2013 and Wimbledon 2016 — has made 30 grand slam quarterfinals all up
Although Ivan Lendl additionally misplaced extra finals than Murray at 11 (Murray has solely misplaced 8), usually his path was blocked by the Big Three.
Three years in the past, a Reddit person named u/fiodor questioned how would Murray have fared with out the Big Three in his method.
The equation was pretty easy because the grand slam was awarded to the participant exterior the Big Three who made it the furthest, and if there have been a number of gamers, it was the one who misplaced to the champion.
The checklist begins with the 2003 Wimbledon title, Federer’s first grand slam win.
If this was the case, on the time of the checklist on September 10 2019, there could be 34 completely different winners and would have seen the likes of Stan Wawrinka and Andy Roddick win 5, Marin Cilic 4 and a bunch of gamers who by no means received a title — Richard Gasquet, David Ferrer, Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, Dominic Thiem, Robin Soderling and Niklay Davydenko all win a number of titles.
Aussie Mark Philippoussis would even have been a grand slam winner, whereas Lleyton Hewitt would have added a 3rd.
How would Murray have gone? He would have moved previous former report holder Pete Sampras’ 14 grand slam titles with 15.
The checklist is probably not completely scientific as completely different champions would have reshaped rankings and who is aware of who would have come by means of the sphere but it surely’s an fascinating thought experiment.
And if Murray isn’t the fourth finest participant of all-time, he’s actually the unluckiest to line up towards the Big Three.
After his epic win over Kokkinakis on Thursday, one of many commentators mentioned of the pair who had performed till simply after 4am in a virtually six hour match that: “They’ll both take away something so much more valuable than rankings points or prizemoney and that’s respect.
“Respect is always earned and never given and they have earned it from every single corner, not only of this stadium, but of the globe as well.”
From 2019 when he was in tears, telegraphing his retirement on the Australian Open forward of hip resurfacing surgical procedure to Thursday evening/Friday morning’s sport, he actually has the world’s respect.
World No. 40 Reilly Opelka tweeted after the match: “Murray is 4th all time”.
Author and former footballer Justin Bryant defended the place, including: “People, don’t debate this by saying ‘But Pete/Borg/Andre/Mac/Lendl’ etc. It doesn’t matter. Understand what Reilly is *really* saying: Andy Murray is f**king awesome.”
CBC’s Tom Harrington commented: “A stunning comeback in the stunning comeback of Andy Murray. At 35 with an artificial hip, he’s already writing one of the best sports stories of the year.”
The BBC’s Wyre Davies opined: “He may be past his best and probably doesn’t know when he’s beaten but @andy_murray can surely be considered the finest British sportsperson of his generation. A genuine world-beater and a never-say-die attitude beyond compare. #bbcsport “
West London Sport’s Ian McCullough wrote: “Said it more than once and been lambasted for it – but maintain that Andy Murray is the best sportsman to come out of Britain.”
Sports broadcaster Jonathan Overend posted: “The legend grows and grows. Sir Andy Murray”.
Murray’s Australian Open dream isn’t over both, regardless of the very fact he’s taking part in the third spherical towards the one seeded participant left in his quarter of the draw — and regardless of Novak Djokovic is the doubtless semi-final opponent the winner of his quarter.
It’s time we give Murray his due respect.
