First it was Tim Henman who would have to bear the brunt; Britain’s best player for several decades who could actually hold his own among the world’s elite and consistently reach the latter stages of Wimbledon and other majors. For years, the former world number four would sustain a mountain of pressure from the media and a fanbase who thought tennis only really mattered for a fortnight every year.
After Tim failed to deliver the promise that so many not hoped, but expected, it was Andy Murray’s time to have his shoulders support the considerable weight.
Murray was a different proposition of course, a firebrand of a player with a confidence and crucially a modern game to match and exceed his rivals at the very top.
Of course, in 2013 the Scot brilliantly triumphed (having silenced many by reaching the final a year previous) – but the pressure to win again is ever present and interestingly just as expectant.
Below, the penultimate film in Standard Life’s Master Your Dreams campaign once again features Andy and focuses on how he deals with the acute pressure of the tour, magnified in and arouns those hallowed two weeks at SW19.
The film nicely highlights the mental merry-go-round of an immediate post-loss locker room and how quickly no doubt a country’s subsequent thoughts can so intimately affect your own.
Fans of Murray owe themselves a watch.
All Things Tennis 