Andy Murray’s goodbye

This year at the Australian Open, the tennis world received devastating news: Andy Murray is retiring from tennis. Murray has been a pioneer for British tennis through the past decade, breaking records and leading the pack. The announcement came as a shock to the entire tennis community because no one was expecting this from him so soon. His legacy as a fighter and contributor to the tennis world will forever be remembered, and he will go down in history as the greatest British tennis player of all time.

In his early years, Murray rose to stardom very quickly by beating the legendary, Roger Federer in the second round of the Cincinnati Masters tournament in 2006. By 2007, he had won three ATP titles and rose to the top 10 in the world. In 2008, Murray again made a name for himself by defeating Rafael Nadal to get to the finals of the US Open, where he lost to Federer. The next few years he remained consistent, winning a few titles each year and reaching the finals of the Australian Open in 2010 and 2011.

In the height of his career, Murray reached the final of the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, the first British pro to reach the final since 1937 – he would, again, lose to Federer. However, he avenged his loss by defeating Federer in the 2012 Olympic Games, earning gold. A few months later, he reached the final of the US Open again, this time claiming the title and being the first British pro to win a grand slam since 1977. Fast forward one year, Murray reached the final of Wimbledon again, however, he was able to win the title this time, defeating Novak Djokovic in straight sets. After this win, Murray became a household name throughout Great Britain.

In 2013, Murray underwent back surgery and was out of the game for a while. He had a up-and-down 2014, being inconsistent with his wins and his playing, compared to when he was at the height of his game. In 2015, however, he made a strong comeback by reaching the finals of the Australian Open for the fourth time and reached the finals of the French open, losing both finals to Djokovic.

In 2016, he once again made the finals of the Australian Open before losing to Djokovic again. Making history again, Murray was able to score his third grand slam title at Wimbledon, which caused major national pride and excitement within in Great Britain. After winning his third grand slam title, Murray went on to defend his gold medal at the 2016 Olympic Games, defeating Juan Martin Del-Potro in the final. This made him the only male tennis player to successfully defend his gold medal at the prestigious event.

Later on, however, Murray started to decline in his quality of play. He wasn’t able to live up to the expectation that people were expecting of him, as well as himself. Throughout the 2017 season, Murray was plagued by a hip injury that resulting in him needing surgery. He returned to tennis in the 2018 summer, but just could not produce the tennis that had once got him to the top of the game. He played in the US Open but struggled to get wins on the board and wasn’t playing his best tennis.

Andy Murray will go down in tennis history as a legend. He has paved the way and inspired so many young British players. He accomplished so much within his illustrious career and was able to break many records that had been set for so long. Murray will forever be known as one of the greatest British tennis players.