The moment the nation got behind Murray

tennis tournaments

In the third round of Wimbledon 2008 Andy Murray found himself two sets and a break down and with his opponent serving for the match. Gasquet had played excellent tennis, appearing completely nerveless and hitting the lines with astonishing regularity, but from that moment things began to go a little bit wrong and a couple of hours later Murray had pulled off a brilliant come back win.

Many things contributed to Gasquet effectively throwing it away. He tightened up a little on the big points, served more double faults and missed more first serves, at the same time Murray went for it a little more, began to play a little better and started playing on Gasquet's weaknesses a little more, and then there was the crowd.

The Wimbledon crowd is absolutely remarkable, the amount of noise that they made and the unrelenting support that they gave to Murray was enough to lift the hairs on the back of your neck. Undoubtedly it got to Gasquet, the young Frenchman is not good in big atmospheres, he regularly fails to perform at Roland Garros, and he collapsed in on himself in the fourth set.

Since Henman reached the quarter-finals all those years ago people have been heralding a brilliant year for the Brits. There's not much fact behind it, just hope, and the belief that with enough shouting and support they might just be able to push their man to the final. Some people, however, believe that it is unsporting. Fine if Gasquet couldn't handle it, but prolonging the shouting when he was waiting to serve is off-putting, and perhaps tellingly they didn't do it as much to Murray.

Still that's part of the deal when you play a home player at his own championships. You know that there is going to be vocal and vociferous support, they're going to cheer your double faults and try and get inside your head. The crowd played a part against Gasquet, but if the Frenchman couldn't face down that opposition, significant though it is, how is he ever going to win a major?

Murray's win proved to be short-lived, he was put out in the next round by the eventual winner of the Championships, Rafael Nadal, but it did mark a turning point in his career where he won the support of the British nation who cheered him on to victory.