Phony Murray Mania Has Bitten The Dust

Should Andy Murray embrace his inner punk and tell the rest of the world to bugger off? I think so.

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Think about it. The man that many know as Muzz is no saint out there on the Wimbledon grass. Murray may stroke the ball sweetly but he plays with a bitter scowl the size of Texas on his face, and he's quick to utter Joe Strummer-like expletives to himself while he punches the strings of his racquet with his soon-to-be bloody fists.

If that's not punk by tennis standards, then I do not know what is.

But I digress. Let's talk about a more relevant topic: Murray's chance's of ending the British curse and stealing the Wimbledon Crown this year.

What's that you say? You're not interested in doing that? You'd rather hear about Andy's mom's obsession with Murray's possible quarterfinal opponent, Deliciano Lopez?

Okay, maybe I should talk about Murray's lack of a chance of winning the title instead. It is far more plausible, after all. Here are two reasons for that: 1. The trivalry 2. Murray'd actually be better off if he realized it was going to take a miracle for him to win Wimbledon this year; admitting that fact might be highly therapeutic for him.

Virginia Wade, a Wimbledon champion on the centennial in 1977, made some good points when she spoke about the pressure of being a British star at Wimbledon. "I got sort of a little annoyed two years ago at the Australian, when he'd (Murray) been playing well and he'd been winning the tournaments leading up," Wade said, "and I thought to myself 'Give him a chance,' it takes a while before you are actually ready to win it. I think now he is ready."

He may be ready. He may even be willing and able, but so too are the three top seeds. The "trivalry" at the top of tennis is in a league of its own. Sorry, but this is not Murray's tournament to win. I think it'd do him a world of good to keep that in the front of his mind. HE'S NOT GOING TO WIN. He could even make light of it to the press.

How's this for a scenario? Murray could've walked into his presser yesterday after his defeat of Ivan Ljubicic and say "Geez, I feel lucky to be in the fourth round. You guys need to relax and stop wasting your ink on me when the defending champion -- that Nadal guy -- is clearly going to win this thing."

Or something to that effect. You get the picture.

I'm not in PR, but if I was, and I was representing Murray, that's what I'd tell him. I certainly wouldn't tell him that his net worth would likely grow by a hundred times if he can become the first British man to win Wimbledon since 1936. Why? Because Muzz doesn't need to be bothered with that trivial stuff.

Murray just needs to play like a punk who has no chance. He needs to smash a few guitars, er, racquets and tell the world to piss off for the next 10 days.

If he does that, and he does it like some other British legends (Sex Pistols, anyone?) have done it before him, then he'll be doing it famously.

If he does it famously, he just might have a chance.