UK Edition
Andy Murray has been named the UK’s greatest ever sportsperson in a wide-ranging poll carried out by Telegraph Sport.
An exhaustive search blended the votes of almost 7,000 Telegraph subscribers with the input of our correspondents and 13 sporting experts – Ryan Giggs, Michael Vaughan, Baroness Grey-Thompson, James Cracknell and Denise Lewis among them. When the ballot papers were counted, Murray was the clear winner.
“I am honoured to receive this award,” said Murray. “It means a great deal, particularly when it has been voted on by the public and a panel of sportspeople – and journalists – I admire and respect.
“When I look at what the other people on the list have achieved it makes me feel very humble to come out on top – it must have been a very close vote.”
The 20 most-chosen sportspeople included representatives from a cross-section of sports. There were three from football, four from athletics, three from rugby union, a cricketer, two Paralympians, two cyclists, a golfer, a jockey and two pre-eminent Olympians.
But Murray is the only tennis player among the Telegraph’s top 50, emphasising the extent to which he has dominated that landscape. Tennis is one of the few truly universal sports, with an estimated 1.2bn participating or watching around the world. It is also one of the loneliest and most gruelling.
“It’s amazing to look at the names and see just how successful UK sport has been, not just now but going back over the past century and more,” added Murray. “It makes you proud to represent the nation. There are some incredible people on the list.”
As Murray himself is in the middle of a two-week training block in Miami, his mother Judy accepted the trophy on his behalf.
“It’s incredibly flattering, a wonderful award to receive,” she said. “Andy’s achievements have come in a global sport, and an individual sport, and an 11-months-of-the-year sport as well. It’s all about consistency of world-class performance week in and week out, and he is playing in the strongest-ever era of men’s tennis.”
Murray’s profile was probably boosted by his perfectly timed run to No1 in the world, which took place while voting was going on in November. But his margin of victory, and the fact that sportsmen and women from all eras were represented in the list, suggests that he would have been a strong contender even without this.
When he won Wimbledon in 2013, Murray ended a 77-year wait for a homegrown male champion and he repeated his triumph this year. He has also made history as the first player to retain an Olympic singles title. His 44 career titles leave him well out in front of the British competition, and his three majors place him in elite company worldwide.
He insists there is more still to come from him. “This has been a great year but there are improvements I can make and I’m looking forward to getting back on court in 2017,” he said. Murray is also the runaway favourite to be named BBC Sports Personality of the Year next week, for what would be an unprecedented third time.
The panel of sporting experts who helped decide the top 100 included the former Olympic sprinter Darren Campbell, who commented on Murray: “Being in the top three of the world would be enough for most people, but for Andy it wasn’t. Finally getting to No1 was about turning that adversity into success.”
Sir Ian McGeechan, four-time head coach of the British and Irish Lions, agreed. “We forget how mental toughness can be grown through sport and he has had to do that. We have seen a player mature not just physically but mentally as well, and he is now an outstanding world No1.”
The decision supports the argument that the tennis players of the past decade represent the greatest generation in sporting history. Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are unquestionably the finest athletes to come out of their respective countries, while Rafael Nadal has repeatedly been voted Spain’s No1 sportsperson of all time.
“There is such strength in depth, even without what was the Big Four,” said Judy Murray. “It’s physically and mentally gruelling, and all I can say is that I refuse to believe that anybody works any harder than he does. Every sport demands something different of its athletes. But for Andy to come out on top after a cross-section of your readers and your panel is very, very flattering.”