Andy Murray to retire

ForssAwakens

ForssAwakens

Well-known member
After the Paris olympics

Where does he rank in the all time list of British sports people

I’d put him high up. Possibly top 3
 
Who are your top two?

What is it based on? All out success, longevity, dour gritty performances, over coming set backs?

It is really hard to judge multiple disciplines and sports against each other IMO.
 
Nowhere near the greatest, not when you have the likes of Phil Taylor and Ronnie O'Sullivan who have dominated their sport for not only years, but for generations.

I'd also have Lewis Hamilton, Joe Calzaghe, Sir AP McCoy, Lennox Lewis and Sir Ben Ainslie further up the list.

Not to mention some others like Sir Chris Hoy, Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Nick Faldo.
 
I’ll
Caesium137 said:
Who are your top two?

What is it based on? All out success, longevity, dour gritty performances, over coming set backs?

It is really hard to judge multiple disciplines and sports against each other IMO.
Click to expand...
It’s a subjective thing isn’t it. Prestige of the sport, popularity of it, era they played in. Think they all play a part

Andy Murray being a 3 time major champion, two gold medals and winning as many times as he did on the atp makes him a serious contender in my eyes, given the popularity and prestige of tennis

I’d probably put Lewis Hamilton as the greatest

Nick Faldo second
 
In Scottish terms I'd have him just above Sandy Lyle who won two majors to Murray's 3. He's also behind Chris Hoy clearly. And that's if we're doing solo sports only that don't include Dalglish/Souness etc.

In British terms he's quite a way down for me. As Marv says you've got to have him behind all those who dominated their sports, Murray never came close to that, Alcaraz has already taken over him. Just my opinion.
 
Last edited:
I'm not really sure that what Lewis Hamilton does is a sport, more of a fast paced advertising jamboree.

Murray definitely above Hamilton for that reason.

I think because tennis is a global sport that Murray's achievements put him above O'Sullivan and Taylor. Maybe he's behind Lennox Lewis.
 
I think it's really hard to judge these things and is obviously subjective.

People like Phil Taylor and Ronnie O might have been more dominant, but in sports that are very UK centric. Not many other countries take them that seriously, so there's an argument their achievements are not quite as impressive.

Forumula 1 depends a hell of a lot on the car. No doubt Hamilton was an incredible driver, but for most of his career it wasn't a level playing field with only a tiny number of drivers with cars of similar performance.

For some of the olympians they're niche sports so limited competition and in events where our competitors have often had massive advantages in terms of funding compared to rivals.

So context matters. But how do you weight/judge that context? Very hard to say.

I do think Murray's achievements have been in a sport that is a lot more competitive than some other names mentioned. That counts for a lot IMO. Where it puts him though I have no idea.
 
Marvanelli said:
Nowhere near the greatest, not when you have the likes of Phil Taylor and Ronnie O'Sullivan who have dominated their sport for not only years, but for generations.

I'd also have Lewis Hamilton, Joe Calzaghe, Sir AP McCoy, Lennox Lewis and Sir Ben Ainslie further up the list.

Not to mention some others like Sir Chris Hoy, Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Nick Faldo.
Click to expand...
Jason and Laura Kenny

Between them they rank no 22 out of every country for Olympic Golds
 
Daly Thompson for me.

Jim Clark or Colin McRae from the motorsports world. (Dougie Lampkin as a wild card)

Joe Calazaghe

Chris Hoy.

But I agree Murray is right up there. Given his career was in the era of the Rogers and the Rafas he's achieved so much!
 
1finny said:
Jason and Laura Kenny

Between them they rank no 22 out of every country for Olympic Golds
Click to expand...
That is a mad, mad statistic. And it goes to show how good GB is at cycling. It's, less face it, a niche sport but there's been 4 mentioned on this thread already
 
I think that individual sports where there are few technological advantages (eg F1) rank higher in terms of achievements. I don’t include games in that such as snooker or darts because to me they aren’t sports.

Using my admittedly biased logic I’d say the top 3, in no particular order, would be Andy Murray, Daley Thompson and Lennox Lewis.
 
Murry would not even make my own top 10 British sportspeople of all time. He was unfortunate to be around at the same time as Federer and Nadal and Djorkovic. He had some great success but nothing compared with those other 3.

He is not in the same category the absolute elites such as Steve Redgrave, Mark Cavendish, Mo Farah, Adam Peaty, Daly Thompson, Laura Kenny, Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny, and probably a few others.
 
What would be the criteria for this accolade? Longevity of being at the topo of your game? Being a World record holder? Ambassador for their sport? The likes of Cavendish, James Anderson and others may never have their achievements surpassed
 
I find it hard to take names like Phil Taylor or Ronnie O'Sullivan seriously as being better sportsmen than Murray. Like surely at some point the standard of the sport and athleticism has to play some kind of factor.

Murray reached the final of every Grand Slam, won three Grand Slams, won 14 Masters titles (which is the fifth most of all-time, only behind Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, and Agassi), and 16 other ATP titles, won the Davis Cup for Great Britain quite literally by himself, won two Olympic gold medals, a Silver medal in doubles, won the World Tour Finals, reached world number one in a period where he was up against the three greatest players of all time. His record in Grand Slams at his peak between 2010-2016 against everyone not named Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, or Rafael Nadal was 131-7 which is an absurd level of dominance. The three greatest of all time he also has a combined 29 wins against. All in one of the most physical intensive, demanding, and gruelling sports you can play.

His 2016 season alone was ridiculous. He reached the final of the Australian Open, and the French Open, and then won Wimbledon, won the Olympics, won the tour finals (in which he beat the world number 2 (Djokovic), 3, 4, 5, and 7 consecutively), reached 13 finals and won 9 of them, went on a 24 match winning streak to end the year, won 5 consecutive tournaments, reached 7 consecutive finals, and finished the year with a record of 78-9.

The idea that some overweight guy playing a glorified pub game that you can play with a pint in your hand is a better sportsman than Andy Murray is absolutely ludicrous to me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top