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WIMBLEDON — Andy Murray needs to ditch the “Mr. Nice Guy” image and become more arrogant, brash and big-headed if he has aspirations of becoming Wimbledon champion, according to Goran Ivanisevic.
Expectations that this might be the year that Britain’s great tennis hope ends a 76-year wait for a men’s grand slam champion has been gathering momentum since last Thursday when Murray’s Wimbledon bogeyman Rafa Nadal was sensationally jettisoned from the 2012 championships.
Murray is much too polite to say it himself, but Nadal’s unexpected demise should have been a cause for celebration for the Brit.
For not only had Nadal enjoyed a commanding 13-5 win-loss record against Murray, the Spaniard also shattered the British No. 1’s Wimbledon dreams all three times they have met on the hallowed turf.
With two of those losses coming in the 2010 and 2011 semifinals, it is little wonder the fans cramming around sweltering Court Nine during Murray’s practice session yesterday, 24 hours before his semifinal against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, were quick to remind him: “Come on Andy, it’s now or never!”
Unsurprisingly, the man who admitted “subconsciously I’m probably extremely stressed out right now” chose to ignore the cries and carried on with his drill of fine-tuning his serves, overheads and volleys under the watchful eye of coach Ivan Lendl.
Ivanisevic believes there is more than a little bit of the ‘crazy Goran’ in Murray as he gives rivals — especially Novak Djokovic, Nadal and Roger Federer — way too much respect.
“In a final and semis Murray has to take chances because against these guys, he can’t wait for them to miss as they are never going to miss,’’ Ivanisevic said. “He has to make them miss and he has to put the pressure on them.”