WIMBLEDON, England — On Sunday before another men’s final, the fans in their broad-brimmed hats and sunscreen stopped to take photographs and pay tennis tribute to the bronze statue of Fred Perry, which stands just outside Centre Court at Wimbledon.
Perry, a debonair Englishman, won the last of his three Wimbledon singles titles in 1936.
But by late afternoon, with the shadows extending across the most famous patch of grass in tennis, Perry no longer stood alone.
Andy Murray, a 26-year-old Scot, put an end to a 77-year drought for the British men at the tournament that matters most to British men. He did it by defeating Novak Djokovic, the No. 1 seed, 6-4, 7-5, 6-4.
“Let’s Make History,” read one of the many signs being waved about in the heat on this steamy day.
And so Murray, long frustrated, did just that. He did it by proving better on the run and in the clutch than Djokovic, the game’s premier marathon man. He did it by rallying from a break of serve down in the last two sets and then shrugging off the loss of three match points and a 40-0 lead in the final game on his own serve.
He kept scrambling, as so many British men have done through the decades, but this time it paid off. On Murray’s fourth match point, Djokovic hit a two-handed backhand into the tape, and the celebration — mixed with relief — began.
