"Winning Wimbledon, I can't get my head around that. I still can't believe it's happened," said Andy Murray, after he convincingly beat Novak Djokovic to become Wimbledon 2013 Men's Champion. As he walked out onto Centre Court on 7th July 2013, the weight of expectation heavy on his shoulders, Andy Murray knew what he had to do to become the first British champion since Fred Perry in 1936. A packed Centre Court crowd, filled with sporting heroes, politicians, "A" list celebrities and lucky members of the public, joined a nation who were watching nervously on screens around the country. The temperature on Centre Court read 40°C, on Britain's hottest day of the year and the heat would make the final a grueling contest for the world's top two players. The match scorecard will show a straight sets win; 6-4, 7-5, 6-4, but it was never that easy. This was a hard, brutal contest between two tennis gladiators. Murray took the first set decisively, but the second seemed to be going to Djokovic until Murray came back from 1-4 to level and then serve for the set. In the third set Murray was up two sets with a break - victory was in sight, but then his opponent, the world number 1, broke and then broke again. But Murray broke back to level the set and broke again so all that remained was for him to hold serve to become champion. It was apt that Murray made us wait in the end. It would have been too easy for him to win with one of his three match points and wipe away the memories of the past eight years. In a final 12 minute game, that Murray described as "tortuous", the nation held it's breath as Djokovic fought back to 40-40 to give himself the slimmest of chances. After a thirteen point march from 40-0 by his opponent, Murray's imperious defence, a key to his success, got him into position to set up a forehand winner at deuce and Djokovic finally surrendered, putting a backhand shot into the net.
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