Andy Murray escaped the horrors of a school shooting massacre when he was eight years old to become one of the world’s standout tennis champions in a modern era dominated by Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
Murray slipped into retirement recently at age 37 when he was defeated in the men’s doubles at the Olympics in Paris.
It ended a career which saw him climb to number one in the world, clinch three Grand Slam titles, two Olympic singles golds and amass a personal fortune of $65 million from his on-court career alone.
He accumulated 46 titles but his defining moment arrived in July 2013 when he became the first British man in 77 years to win Wimbledon.
A straight-sets victory on Centre Court over childhood rival Djokovic finally laid to rest the ghost of Fred Perry, the last British man to triumph at the All England Club back in 1936.
“Winning Wimbledon is the pinnacle of tennis,” said Murray as his mother Judy and girlfriend, and soon to be wife, Kim wept courtside.
It had been a tense, knife-edge afternoon, none more so than in the deciding game as Murray saw three championship points come and go.
However, when Djokovic meekly dumped a return into the net, the celebrations began and the bitter taste of defeat to Federer in the 2012 final was forgotten.
“I was happy for Andy because he deserved it. He was working so hard to get his hands on the Wimbledon title,” said Djokovic, a seven-time Wimbledon champion.
Murray, who reached 11 Grand Slam finals, would go on to claim a second Wimbledon title in 2016 although an eventual, lengthy battle with a hip injury meant he was never to get past the last-eight in recent years.
An ankle injury set him back in 2024 before an operation to remove a cyst on his back ruled him out of playing singles for the last time at Wimbledon.
