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Andy Murray Wins Gold For Great Britain In Great Britain While He’s Still British

Scotsman Andy Murray is Great Britain’s golden boy. Murray, who has never won a major, brought home a pretty significant prize on his home court Sunday: Olympic gold. And with Scotland knee-deep in the process of secession from the UK, it’s a good thing Murray got that whole feel-good story of the hometown favorite winning a big tournament at Wimbledon out of the way while he was actually still British.

On the same court in which Roger Federer defeated Murray for the Wimbledon title less than two months ago, Murray got the best of the rematch, winning convincingly (6-2, 6-1, 6-4) in straight sets. He had the raucous, “non-tennis crowd” at his back, which is well and good. Here’s what match point looked like:

And here’s Murray hugging a random (well, seemingly random, anyway) kid in the stands:

Cute. But due to powers beyond Murray’s control, it could be a short time before he is no longer a subject of Her Royal Highness and becomes the most hated man at Wimbledon for years to come.

Murray’s Scotland joined forces with England in 1707, but apparently things get sour in a marriage after the first 305 years, which has First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond thinking splitsville. He’s had enough of the UK’s bullying. He wants out and he wants to bring Scotland with him. Unfortunately for tennis-loving Brits, that includes Andy Murray.

It was always a tasty morsel of irony that a Scot got such a loyal following at the All England Club, but if Murray becomes sovereign from the rest of the UK by default, it would be one of the weirder things to ever happen in the world of sports. The secession process has hit some expected snags, as I would imagine after three centuries of marriage, deciding who gets to keep the 45s is like pulling teeth. So the British tennis world doesn’t have to devolve into panic just yet.

No, Andy Murray isn’t not British right now, and he’ll probably still be British for a few years to come, if not indefinitely. But it’s a good thing he managed to squeeze in some significant victory on his home turf while Wimbledon is still, well, his home turf.

[h/t KIAH-TV, photo via]