DavieCooper.com Editor’s Blog

Deep in the bowels of Washington’s FBI headquarters Fox Mulder paces around his office, thumbing through a dossier of unexplained phenomena - alien abductions, supernatural sightings and Andy Murray’s 4th round US Open defeat. Behind him a tattered poster clings onto an inconspicuous grey wall. It depicts a saucer shaped craft floating above a pinewood forest, with the words “I WANT TO BELIEVE” scrawled below it.

Andy; I still want to believe.

Following Murray’s capitulation to Marin Cillic, at Flushing Meadows, there are now more questions than answers:

Is his playing style too passive?
Did he participate in too many tournaments leading up to the US Open?
Is he overly chummy with his coaching staff?
Does the Loch Ness monster actually exist?

Every journalist and pundit has their pet theory on why Murray buckled to lower seeds in the last few grand slams. If there’s one man who knows what it takes to win a slam it’s Roger Federer. Back in 2008, after losing to Muzza at the Dubai Championships, Federer remarked:

“He is going to have to grind it very hard in the next few years if he is going to play this way.”

“He stands way behind the court. You have to do a lot of running and he tends to wait for the mistakes of his opponent.”

“I gave him the mistakes but overall in a 15-year career you want to look to win a point more often rather than wait for the other guy to miss. Who knows, he might surprise us all.”

At the time it sounded like sour grapes - the churlish quip of a tennis legend that had been humbled by a young whipper snapper. But in retrospect, it’s the one criticism that has been consistently levelled at the Dunblane star.

Let’s look at the facts. Every time Murray has come up against an in-form big hitter in the last few slams he has lost – Roddick (Wimbledon), Gonzalez (French Open), Verdasco (Australian Open). Is the Muzz man letting his opponents blast him off the court by being too passive with the tennis ball? It’s a fair shout.

For Murray, the decision to change anything in his tennis world is a difficult one. This year has seen incredible progress: he has risen to number two in the world rankings, won several masters tournaments and improved on his previous showings at the French Open and Wimbledon. So you can understand why the youngster is reluctant to make any radical alterations to his game. But Andy is astute; a tennis connoisseur, and will intrinsically know that some minor tweaks are required if he wants to be a grand slam winner.

Andy; the truth is out there…

His career was a soap opera…then it was a pantomime…now it’s A-Farce. In 2000, Audley Harrison won an Olympic gold medal; a few months ago he was beaten by a Belfast cabbie. His journey from Olympic champion to laughing stock has been a humiliating debacle. Surely now, Harrison must abandon his dream of becoming world heavyweight champion. Think again - A-Force, relentless in his pursuit of serial disappointment, is staging another comeback. 

If self-delusion were currency, Audley Harrison would be a billionaire. Despite embarrassing losses to journeymen opponents, his advancing years (he’s 37), countless injuries, and the economic plight of boxing, Harrison believes he can return Phoenix-like to the higher echelons of the sport. Recently his media interviews have been peppered with desperate, self-motivating, psycho-babble: 

“It’s like the Michael Jackson song ‘Man in the Mirror’, I’ve looked at myself and the answer coming back has been ‘yes, you can’.“ 

A-Force is hanging onto reality by his fingernails. 

Maybe I’m taking his failure personally: I was a passionate Harrison supporter, and enjoyed many late nights watching his fisticuffs on the BBC. Some critics dismissed him as “another Bruno” who only brawled with second-rate bums. But I always felt he possessed far more natural ability than the HP sauce man. That’s why his recent capitulation is so frustrating. This British pugilist was talented enough to win a world title (remember the killer jab and lighting hands). So where did it all go wrong? 

In 2001, Harrison planted the seeds of self-destruction when he chose not to sign-up with a major boxing promoter. Instead, he opted to manage and promote himself using his A-Force Promotions company. The boxing establishment frowned at his decision and, at the dawn of his professional career, he had already irritated the major power brokers in the game.

Harrison’s next faux pas was to buy into his own mythology: the million pound contract with the BBC, the post-Olympics adulation, his “celebrity” status, all fuelled his burgeoning ego. Subconsciously, he was already celebrating in Caesars Palace - hoisting a gold plated, lacquered belt above his head. A-Force felt his sense of destiny would bestow greatness - it was a naïve and fatal assumption. There were years of hard grafting to be done first. 

On October 2, A-Force will have another last throw of the dice. He will be boxing in the Prizefighter event: an eight-man, one-night knockout tournament that includes British heavyweight Champion Danny Williams and Michael Sprott. Frank Warren is frantically promoting it, and a Harrison victory would help resurrect his flat-lined career.

We all have dreams in life – it’s healthy. Audley Harrison is no exception. His 2001 Autobiography was titled “Realising the Dream” and he often eulogises that “The dream is still alive”. But when your dream becomes a fantasy that you cannot relinquish, obsession lurks in the shadows. Audley if you lose your next fight – for your own sake - please hang up the gloves.