Making History: Murray vs Federer Wimbledon Facts

We’ve gathered a handy list of facts and figures to help you be the expert in your living room during the 2012 Wimbledon Gentlemen’s Singles Final between Andy Murray and Roger Federer. If you want to print this off to have it to hand during the match, we’ve made a print-friendly version for you.

1. Andy Murray will be the first British man to play in a Wimbledon Gentlemen’s Singles final since 1938 (74 years)
2. The last British men’s singles finalist at Wimbledon was Bunny Austin, who lost in straight sets (6-1, 6-0, 6-3)
3. The man who lost to Bunny Austin in the 1938 Wimbledon semi-final was the German Henner Henkel, who was killed during the Battle of Stalingrad.
4. Henkel had however beaten Bunny Austin in the final of the French Open (the French Championships as it was called then) at Roland Garros in 1937.
5. Andy Murray has been in Grand Slam Finals before (Grand Slams being the four major tournaments – Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, US Open). He lost in the US Open Final in 2008, Australian Open Final 2010, and Australian Open final in 2011.
6. Roger Federer has played in 24 Grand Slam finals, winning 16 of them.
7. Andy Murray has not won a set in any of his Grand Slam finals so far.
8. He lost to Roger Federer in the first two of those Grand Slam Finals, and Novak Djokovic in the third.
9. Four other players – Fred Stolle, Jaroslav Drobny, Ivan Lendl, Andre Agassi – have played and lost their first three grand slam finals.
10. All of them went on to win at least two Grand Slams (although Ivan Lendl lost a fourth Grand Slam final before going on to win his first of eight titles).
11. Lendl, however, never won at Wimbledon, losing twice in the finals – to Boris Becker in 1986 and Pat Cash in 1987 (both in straight sets).
12. Ivan Lendl has been Andy Murray’s coach since the start of 2012.
13. Two other British men have been in Grand Slam finals since 1938 (but not at Wimbledon). They are John Lloyd (who lost the Australian Open Final in 1977) and Greg Rusedski (who lost the US Open Final in 1997)
14. If Andy Murray wins Wimbledon, he will be the first British man to win a Grand Slam title since Fred Perry in 1936 (76 years).
15. Fred Perry won Wimbledon for the third time in 1936.
16. The last British Grand Slam title was Fred Perry’s victory in USA later in 1936 (the third of his US titles).
17. Perry also won the French once and Australian once.
18. Fred Perry was World Table Tennis Champion in 1929.
19. There have been more recent British successes in women’s Grand Slams than in men’s.
20. Virginia Wade won the women’s singles at Wimbledon in 1977 in the Queen’s Silver Jubilee year (having won the US Open in 1968 and the Australian Open in 1972).
21. Sue Barker, the host of the BBC’s Wimbledon TV coverage, won the French Open in 1976.
22. Other British female Grand Slam winners since 1936 include: Ann Haydon Jones, Christine Truman, Shirley Brasher, Angela Mortimer and Dorothy Round Little.
23. British players have fared only a little better at Doubles in recent history until Jonathan Marray, with his Danish partner Frederik Nielsen, won the men’s doubles the day before Andy Murray’s singles final..
24. That doubles victory by Marray was the first at Wimbledon for a British man since 1936, when Pat Hughes and Raymond Tuckey won, and for Nielsen the first Grand Slam victory of any sort by a Danish man (although his grandfather Kurt reached the Wimbledon twice, in 1953 and 1955).
25. Roger Taylor won the men’s doubles at the US Open in 1972 with South African Cliff Drysdale.
26. In Mixed Doubles, Andy Murray’s brother, Jamie, won the Wimbledon title in 2007 with Jelena Jankovic of Serbia.
27. The last all British doubles victory at Wimbledon was in 1987 when Jeremy Bates and Jo Durie won the Mixed.
28. At Wimbledon, Andy Murray has always done at least as well as the previous year since his Wimbledon debut (with the forgivable exception of 2007 when he didn’t play through injury).
29. In 2005 he reached the 3rd round, in 2006 the 4th round, in 2008 the Quarter-Final, in 2009-2011 he reached the Semi-Final, and now in 2012 he has reached the Final.
30. If Andy Murray wins, he will remain as  World Number 4, behind Djokovic, Nadal and Federer (although Federer will overtake Nadal as number 2 even if Murray wins).
31. In head-to-head matches, Murray leads Federer 8-7, although they have never played on grass
32. Federer has beaten Andy Murray on both occasions that they have played in Grand Slams (both times in Finals)
33. Federer leads Murray 4-2 in finals in general (including the Grand Slams)
34. If Federer wins, it will be his 17th Grand Slam title, taking him even further clear of Pete Sampras who won 14 Grand Slam titles.
35. If Federer wins, it will be his 7th Wimbledon title, equalling the record held by Pete Sampras and William Renshaw.
36. Federer won Wimbledon for the first time in 2003, and then won it in each of 2004-2007 and again in 2009.
37. Federer’s winning streak of five consecutive Wimbledon titles is matched in the Open Era (since 1968 when professionals could play) only by Bjorn Borg.
38. Just by reaching the final, Federer equals the record of 8 Wimbledon Finals held by William Renshaw in the 1880s. However, most of Renshaw’s “finals” were under the old Challenge format, under which every other played competed in the draw, and the winner took on the reigning champion.
39. If Federer wins, he will regain the World Number 1 spot that he held for a record 237 weeks from February 2004 until August 2008, and for 48 weeks from July 2009 until June 2010.
40. Federer will also equal Pete Sampras’ record for total number of weeks at world number 1, a total of 286 weeks, a record that he should then hold by himself a week later.
41. Federer and Sampras only played once at Wimbledon, in 2001, when Federer beat Sampras in the fourth road.
42. Federer lost in the quarter-finals that year to Tim Henman, who went on to lose to Goran Ivanisevic in a rain-affected three day semi-final before Ivanisevic won the famous Monday final against Pat Rafter.
43. Roger Federer is married to former tennis player Mirka Vavrinec, whom he met while both were competing for Switzerland in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
44. Federer has twin girls called Myla Rose and Charlene Riva, who were born in July 2009.
45. Federer’s father is Swiss (and Federer was born in Switzerland) but his mother was born in South Africa, and thus he holds both Swiss and South African citizenship.
46. Federer speaks Swiss German, German, French and English fluently.
47. In 2003, Federer was deemed unfit for compulsory military service in the Swiss Armed Forces because of a long-standing back problem.
48. Despite this back problem (which caused him to call the trainer on to the court during his fourth round match at Wimbledon against Xavier Malisse), Federer has a remarkable fitness record.
49. Federer has played in 51 consecutive Grand Slams, reaching the quarter-finals or better in the last 33, which is well ahead of the previous record of 27 set by Jimmy Connors.
50. Murray has had injury problems of his own, and was born with a bipartite patella, which was diagnosed when he was 16, after which he stopped playing tennis for six months.
51. Andy Murray’s girlfriend is Kim Sears, who is the daughter of Nigel Sears, who is the coach of women’s world number 12 Ana Ivanovic
52. Murray’s mother is Judy Murray, who is captain of the Great Britain Fed Cup team (the women’s equivalent of the Davis Cup).
53. His parents separated when he was nine years old, and Andy and elder brother Jamie lived with their father Will, who is  in a relationship with Sam Watson, an optician.
54. Andy attended Dunblane Primary School, and was present during the 1996 Dunblane school massacre.
55. “Deferred, well-being demon” is an anagram of “Federer – Wimbledon Legend”, while “Murray Wimbledon disappointment”  is an anagram of “Moribundly swampier and impotent.”