Murray’s Moment – Australian Open Final 2011

So here I am sitting waiting to go pee in my tiny 6^th floor flat in Madrid; desperately waiting, in fact. At this very moment my flat mate is in the bathroom bathing her two-year-old daughter. So who knows how long I will be sitting here?

Maybe two minutes? Maybe five? And surely, from experience, no longer than ten?

So I’m thinking, ok let’s write. Great idea. Distraction from sensation; and from temptation. The temptation of, well um, going to break the lavatory door down.

In these circumstances, this thought crosses my mind:  What would one do, which one wouldn’t normally do, to relieve such a simple necessity?

And with time, that thought is becoming stronger, persistent, more real even.

Just imagine if I have to wait 30 minutes or an hour?

Of course I’d have other options. To get off my lazy butt and go down to the nearest pub or restaurant, or even go out on the street - heaven forbid!

But what if that option becomes unavailable to me? How long before I’m being tempted to take a more drastic form of action?

How long will my patience last? How long can I subdue my body? 
Which, strangely enough, brings me to one Andy Murray. How is his patience holding up? 

Surely in his short-but-successful career, he must have been tempted to put his fist through the odd journalist, the occasional goading presenter, the provocative interviewer, or the occasional “random” who writes of his “miserable gittishness”

and “isn’t it about time you stopped being such a moody bastard?”

Of course, I have the arrogance to include myself in this list, as a “random” that is, or on my most egotistical of days, a sports journalist.

So back to the pee.

I, at least, have the luxury of relief waiting just a few minutes around the corner, from whence I will no longer have to pull or break anything down, that is apart from my zipper.

But what strategies does Andy use to be patient? Especially in what could be such defining enormity.

Long-term planning? Clear and defined goals? Simple process objectives? Staying present?

Surely this is mostly taken care of, apart from staying present of course, which is often the biggest challenge of all.

But still, even with all these finely tuned, AND staying present, when your dreams stay just out of reach - as they have done in three previous slam finals - but within touching distance, how does one cope? Being so close yet so far?

Or in other words; how, exactly, does one avoid breaking down the lavatory door?

It will be fascinating to see this time, and I emphasise this time for it is without a Federer or a Nadal, whether Andy can remain mature enough, and patient enough to take his first Grand Slam title.

For this, I sense, is the making or breaking of “Andy Murray the Grand Slam champion.”