WIMBLEDON, England—You might wonder what the British sports press does when it rains; they obviously have a lot of time to kill because of it.
It turns out that the media here is just like you and me: The more time they have to think, the more they start to believe that doom may be waiting for them around every corner, or hidden in their next meat pie. When it comes to athletics, their phobias fall under a broad category that might be called, “Fear of the British sportsman who might win.”
The Sun kicks off Friday morning with a headline that could have been ripped from a Friday the 13th poster, or an ad for a home-surveillance system:
ANDY WORRY: NO ONE’S SAFE...NOT EVEN ME
The Express agrees...
MURRAY: I COULD BE THE NEXT BIG LOSER
...and then hands out this (disappointingly polite) warning:
BRITAIN EXPECTS ANDY...SO PLEASE DON’T SLIP UP
The Mirror takes an alternative route to hype city by building up Murray’s next opponent, veteran Tommy Robredo. Though what seems scariest about him is his first name:
SPINBALL WIZARD
Murray urges caution as Tommy aims to show him who’s the boss.
“Andy Murray warned,” Neil McLeman writes, “that any of the remaining big names could be rocked out of Wimbledon as he prepared to face an on-song Spaniard named after the The Who pop opera.”
The *Mail* also does its best to make Tommy sound, if not dangerous, at least kind of sexy:
WHO CAN STOP HIM NOW?
Murray’s path to final opens up, but beware Tommy the rock star
It’s not all fear and loathing at the Mail, however. The paper does Murray a favor by bringing in an outside expert to give him some level-headed advice on handling the pressure:
YOU CANNOT BE BLOWING THIS!
McEnroe tells Andy it will be an “absolute catastrophe” if he fails to reach the final
So what did Murray say to start all of this hand-wringing?
“These things happen all the time in sport. I know if I don’t play well, I’ll lose.”
Scary indeed.