Creating Heroes

Andy Murray is eagerly waiting to play for Great Britain in the next Davis Cup.

Great Britain has to face United States of America first up in March and Murray is excited about it.

The team which wins that tie in the opening round would make its way to the Round of 8 where it would be up against the winner of the tie between Germany and France.

The British players would have the fond memories of the win that they had secured over America in the first half of this year. They would surely want to repeat that in Glasgow where there would be huge crowd support for them.

Talking about the upcoming tie in a press conference, Murray said, “It’s always exciting when you play with the crowd behind you. I have already played here, I think 3-4 years back, and the support back then was just fantastic, but, there will be a different sort of pressure this time around as we are in the world group. We would try and do whatever required and hopefully, end up on the winning side.”

The skipper of the Great Britain side, Leon Smith, was also accompanying Murray in the conference. He was quoted as saying, “Andy hasn’t played in Scotland that often in the recent past. This is probably going to be his first appearance in almost 2 years. He is one of the favourite sons of the soil and there is no doubt in my mind that a large number of people would gather to watch him live.”

“In 2011, when he had represented Great Britain in the Davis Cup, you would have seen the desperation of the people despite the fact that it wasn’t World Group fixture. He is immensely loved here.”

Sara Errani will lock horns with Sabine Lisicki of Germany in her first match in the upcoming Canadian Open tennis tournament which is also known as Rogers Cup.

It’s going to be the second match between these two players in the professional circuit. They had faced each other for the first time in 2013 at Rolland Garros and its Errani who had emerged victorious there.

Errani has not featured on hard courts of late. After the Wimbledon, she opted to take part in a clay court event which was not such a smart move by her as she is already quite strong on clay. It’s the other surfaces that she is not that comfortable with and thus, she should have rather played in a grass court event after her exit from the All England Club.

As far as Lisicki is concerned, she has gone down quite a lot ranking wise in the recent past. She is currently at the 29^th position and she would definitely be eager to move up from there. Her journey in Wimbledon wasn’t that bad as she had managed to get to the Round of 8.

Thereafter, the German player suffered first round exit in the Bank of the West Classic. However, in spite of the defeat, it was a memorable match for her as she broke Venus Williams’ world record of the fastest serve in the female category in that match.

Although Errani is quite higher than Lisicki in the world rankings, she is not the favourite to win this contest purely because her game doesn’t suit to the hard courts as much as Lisicki’s game does.

Lisicki, in all likelihood, would put Errani in trouble with her lightening serves. The 24-year old German might wrap up the proceedings in a short period of time. A straight set victory for her is very much possible.

The British people seem to get impatient with their sports personalities very soon. No matter which sport those personalities belong to, as long as they are having a good time, they are getting plaudits and just as they go down a little bit, severe criticism starts.

The sportsperson who is experiencing that criticism thing at the moment in Britain is Andy Murray. One year back, the Scot was at the top of the world. He had given the British tennis fans something that they had been waiting for 70 odd years. A year later, he is finding himself on the floor. All the love that was being given to him at the same point of time last year has turned into hatred now. Why? It’s just because he couldn’t defend his crown at All England Club this year.

The disappointment of the fans is totally understandable. But, being disappointed doesn’t mean that you should start using harsh words against somebody who, just about a year ago, had given you a whole lot of joy.

It’s only a game at the end of the day. Somebody has to lose and the other one has to win. Murray is not the only one to have suffered a shocking defeat in his career; the other greats have suffered too. Roger Federer is a good example. He was almost impossible to be beaten at one point of time, but, in the last couple of years, he has lost to a lot of young players. Has he been criticized the same way in Switzerland as Murray is being criticized in Britain at the moment? The answer is no.

Murray is a tough character mentally and he would not let this tough phase get him down and out, that’s for sure. He would bounce back at some stage, but, right now, the Scot needs a bit of support from the British fans.