Tennis ace Andy Murray has “finally accepted defeat after years of injuries and will hang up his racket” following the Olympics, which started in Paris last week, says Tom Morgan in The Telegraph. Now Murray “faces the question he has dreaded most: what next?”. Coaching is one option, but Murray, 37, has made “no secret of his plans to build a major business portfolio” with his £50.7m in career earnings, and he has steadily been growing his investments in recent years. He already has his own tennis apparel brand, AMC, and his wide-ranging portfolio of business interests encompasses various tech projects, including start-ups Perkbox and WeSwap. The latest accounts for his firm 77 Sports Management show that it is valued at £21.4m, a £900,000 increase on the year before.
But when Murray plays his last shot, there will be tears from fans, says The Scotsman. He is the only man ever to win two Olympic gold medals in the singles and, “most famously, ended the 77-year wait for a British man to win Wimbledon” when he beat Novak Djokovic in 2013. In all, he has won 46 titles. Yet despite the successes, he always came across as humble, decent and thoughtful. Delightfully grumpy too, says Michael Deacon, also in The Telegraph. Murray “is not exactly known for his charisma, repartee and sparkling joie de vivre”. Many English observers have found him “rude and stroppy”. But he’s just Scottish: “Scowling, muttering and making jokes about the England football team are integral aspects of our culture, our history, our national identity”. And it made a nice change from all that English politeness.
“So God bless you, Andy, and thanks for everything… [But] whatever you do, don’t give us a smile.”
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That seems unlikely as Murray has always seemed to be in pain, says Arabella Byrne in The Spectator. As a survivor of the Dunblane massacre, he has “known agony”. On court, he has often played through painful injuries. In interviews, he could barely conceal the “pain of a nation’s expectations on his shoulders”. And playing in an era dominated by greats such as Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer made every point won “seem like a nail jammed into his chest”. Now, at last, “the pain is over”, and he can put his feet up. He’s not done badly “for someone who always looked like he wanted to be anywhere but the tennis court”.
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