Murray, Wrong Era?

What is Andy Murray?  He is a great player and will go down as the fourth best player of his generation.  But, what if he had played in a generation without the greatest player of all-time (Federer), the greatest clay court player of all-time (Nadal) and possibly the second greatest all-around player of all-time (Djokovic)?  He could be up in the all-time elite.  Look at his record 172–39 in grand slams…that is amazing.  More amazingly, he has been to 11 finals (not to mention 9 other semi-finals), but with only 3 wins.  The problem was outside of his win last weekend, every other finals match was against Federer or Djokovic.  He is now 2-8 against those two in finals, not a good record.  But in any other era he would be running away with titles.  This year alone, the only player to beat him in a major is Djokovic.  He lost the Australian and French final to Novak.  Murray is incredible.

But against the top 3, things take a turn for the worse.  Federer has won 17 major championships including every surface and is the greatest of all-time.  If you have seen him play and disagree, you are wrong.  Nadal was and hopefully will one day again after his injury recovers be a force of nature especially on clay.  He can’t be beat at the Roland-Garros if he is healthy and is even nearly impossible to beat elsewhere.  He literally is tied for the second most major ever behind only Federer.  Djokovic on the other hand started slowly but learned he had celiac disease (around five years ago) and since then has been taking the tennis world by storm.  He still is only 29 with 12 majors and will probably catch Nadal/Sampras’s record of 14 and still has a shot at Federer’s all-time record 17.  It is an unreal era of tennis when just three players can dominate like this.

But that is what makes what Murray has done amazing.  He has had to battle three of the all-time great.  He does have some huge accomplishments of his own on his side.  He did bring England their first Wimbledon champion in over 60 years, which is amazing.  He has an incredible all-time record even counting his poor record against the big-3. Players of the past generation: Sampras, Agassi, etc. never fared as well against lesser foes.  Plus and this can not be counted enough, I know coming home to a beautiful woman you love everyday is amazing, here is his wife, Kim Sears:

Overall, Murray still has it pretty good.

There is the possibility Murray takes control of the next 3 to 4 years and finally reaches his full potential.  But in order for that to happen it will take a breakdown of Djokovic (Federer and Nadal are sadly already breaking down) and no emergence of any new stars.  Basically a new star has to show up, Murray takes his place among the all-timers, or more likely Djokovic continues to dominate and contends Federer for the greatest ever.  I personally hope Murray and Djokovic get to face a new rival.  I still would love to see one more vintage Federer major victory, but only time will tell.  But don’t worry about Murray with the entirety of England, Kim Sears and millions of dollars at his side Andy Murray may not gain his rightful place in history, but he will be more than just fine.