Neither shaken nor stirred – yet

Chief Sports Writer

Saturday 7 July 2012

THERE was a celebratory cocktail party at the All England last night.

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Hugh MacDonald

Andy Murray politely declined his invitation. The 25-year-old Scot has reached his first final at Wimbledon but he and his team remain focused on business.

Moments after defeating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in four sets to set up his third grand-slam final with Roger Federer he spoke to his coach Ivan Lendl. "He said: 'Good job. You did really well. What time do you want to practise tomorrow?' That's it. There's no time for anything else," said Murray.

He added: "It's not the end of the tournament yet. The time for all of that stuff comes when I'm done. I won't celebrate. I'll just enjoy this evening. I'll go back home, have a nice meal with my girlfriend and then, yeah, just enjoy it with her and the dogs. That's it."I'm not going to go out and celebrate tonight, although I heard there's a cocktail party here this evening which I've been invited to but probably won't be participating in."The Scot was remarkably calm in the face of his achievement and he praised Lendl for bringing stability to his emotions. He said the eight-time grand slam winner had ensured he "didn't get too excited on the court, never get too high, never get too down. Maybe in the past I was too up and down. I needed to try to be a bit more stable on the court, not be so emotional".He added: "I'd say that the one thing that I've learnt from being around him was that after the match today there wasn't jumping around the locker room with excitement. It was: 'There's one more match to go. Well done today, but let's focus on the next one'."That comes against Federer, who has defeated Murray in two previous grand slam finals. Murray insisted he would go into the final as second favourite as his opponent was "one of the greatest players ever to have played the game". Federer, who has won 16 grand slams, is seeking his seventh Wimbledon title."I'd be surprised if he wasn't the best in terms of his win/loss ratio here," said Murray of the Swiss player who has won 65 matches at Wimbledon, losing just seven. "And he's been doing it consistently over a number of years. The matches he has lost in the last couple of years were five sets against Tsonga, five sets against [Tomas] Berdych, five sets against Rafa [Nadal]. He's very, very tough to beat here."The Scot, now through to his fourth grand slam final, played down his chances in the match. "It's a great challenge, one where I'm probably not expected to win the match, but one that, if I play well, I'm capable of winning. If you look at his record here over the past 10 years or so, yeah, it's been incredible," he said."So the pressure that I would be feeling if it was against somebody else, I guess it would be different. But there will be less on me on Sunday because of who he is."He emphasised: "There's obviously going to be nerves and pressure there for sure, but I need to try to stay focused."Of the stress on him that brought tears to his eyes at the end of the match, he said: "Subconsciously at the end of the match it was very emotional. It meant something to me and it was very, very important."Murray now follows in the footsteps of Bunny Austin, the last British male player to reach the finals. Austin lost in 1938 although the great Fred Perry won in 1936.The Scot was last night asked a convoluted question about whether he expected a blessing from Perry. Murray, somewhat lugubriously, pointed out the Englishman was dead. The world No.4, in contrast, is very much alive in his hunt for his first grand slam title.

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Neither shaken nor stirred – yet

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