Tag: Andy Murray

Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games, which came to  a close at Hampden Park, will go down in history with a significant sub-heading: the Bit-Shit Games that saved Britain’s sporting summer of 2014.

Where the country’s sporting heavyweights – from England’s hapless footballers to Andy Murray’s limp defence of his historic Wimbledon title – failed, the comparative lightweights proved a knock out. “I felt,” said Usain Bolt after collecting his first Commonwealth Games gold medal, “like I was in the London Olympics.”

Glasgow has always shied from comparisons with 2012, an iconic sporting summer for Britain, but this was a damn good mini-London, and that is meant as nothing but a compliment. It was a further reminder that Britons may not play sport in sufficient numbers, but they will watch it day-in, day-out. This one came delivered with a dollop of Glaswegian gallus and a great big smile; as the old city marketing slogan had it, Glasgow’s miles better.

London did not need the attention that came with the Olympics but for a city like Glasgow, this was a fillip that stretched beyond simply sport. There will have been envious glances from the old maid of Edinburgh over the last two weeks, in what was a prolonged advertisement for Glasgow’s not always obvious charms.

“Someone said to me the other day, ‘I have lived here all my life, and I can firmly say Glasgow will never be the same – and in a good way. It feels like the city is going places’,” said David Grevemberg, the American chief executive of Glasgow 2014. “I thought that was just a brilliant summing up. It will never be the same. This moment has been truly defining. It shows you the power of sport in so many ways.”

Wimbledon champion Andy Murray would  consider hiring seven-time grand slam winner John McEnroe as his coach, saying the controversial American would have plenty to offer his game.

World number eight Murray, playing this week at the Madrid Masters, has been without a coach since he split from Ivan Lendl in March.

Before the split Murray had a successful two-year spell under the Czech tennis ace, during which he won two grand slam titles and gold at the 2012 Olympics.

“Every player would consider someone with his credentials,” the 26-year-old Scot told the BBC on Sunday. I like listening to him commentate and he has a lot to offer as well. It’s interesting but if anything comes from it, who knows?

“When you are very competitive as a player, you are likely to be the same as a coach and that’s also a benefit. He was a great player and he’s always kept an interest in the game, which is important. He has a great knowledge of the sport.”

American McEnroe, 55, indicated this week he would be willing to help Murray in spite of having a number of media commitments and a lack of professional coaching experience.

Murray, however, is in no rush to make an appointment.

“It depends how I do in the next couple of weeks,” he said.