Sport | Tennis
Dunblane claps for defeated Murray
Murray's home town support him in local venues through to the bitter end.
- Guardian News & Media Ltd
- Published: 23:04 July 4, 2009
London: Murray's home town support him in local venues through to the bitter end. When the ball hit the net and it was over, the Dunblane Centre fell silent. Then the clapping started, loud and long. Not for Andy Roddick, but his opponent, the young man the people gathered here had willed to win with every shot.
"It's just gutting," said Jamie Milligan, 27, a friend of Jamie Murray's, who had come to the centre to catch the final stages of Andy Murray's match.
"It's bitterly disappointing, but Andy Roddick is a difficult character to play and everyone had been building this up as a walkover for Murray. But, you know, Andy will go away and get stronger from this. He's only young."
It wasn't the biggest of crowds that had gathered in the centre to watch, but it was a noisy one. The facility, built in the wake of the Dunblane tragedy, was one of the venues for those in the town who wanted to watch the match on a big screen.
The cheering had started as soon as the cameras picked out Murray rounding the corner with Roddick and onto centre court. Every winning shot from the Scot was met with shouts and applause, every missed ball, a collective intake of breath. When Murray called to the crowd for support after losing the first set, they answered him here, as if their voices could reach him. "Come on, Andy!" As the match progressed, laughter gave way to determined applause. When he took the second set, there were cries of 'Yes!' Arms punched into the air. No-one doubted that he could do it, and they held to that until the very end.
"He's done brilliantly," said David McFarlane, 60, a keen tennis player and friend of the Murray family.
"We all should be proud. He made a Wimbledon semifinal and that's a real achievement. He will go on and get a grand slam yet."
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