Murray hails coach Lendl who made him a champion

When Andy Murray lost his first three grand slam finals without winning a set, it seemed he was destined to join a long line of "Brave Brits" whose career would be defined by near misses.

Many predicted that when he finally hung up his racquet, he would simply tag on the end of the queue which was already heaving with such tennis luminaries as Bunny Austin, Roger Taylor, John Lloyd, Greg Rusedski and Tim Henman. Fred Perry's standing as the last British player to win a grand slam title, in 1936, looked like it would stretch on to another generation.

But just when British fans were starting to despair, Murray decided to seek out a new coach and dialled the number of a tennis great who had barely been seen around a court in 18 years. The fact that that man happened to be Ivan Lendl - a player whose love-hate relationship with Wimbledon went to extremes - certainly raised eyebrows.

What had initially seemed like a crazy idea has turned out to be a masterstroke because over the course of 18 months, the Czech-turned-American plotted Murray's path to glory in arguably the greatest ever era for men's tennis.

First came the Olympic gold amid joyful scenes at the All England Club last August, then the US Open at Flushing Meadows and finally on Sunday Murray got his hands on the ultimate prize in tennis - the Wimbledon men's trophy.

"He believed in me when a lot of people didn't," said Murray, whose calm demeanour on Sunday was in stark contrast to 12 months ago when he ended up being a tearful wreck after finishing runner-up to Roger Federer. "He stuck by me through obviously some tough losses the last couple of years. He's been very patient with me. I'm just happy I managed to do it for him. He would have loved to have won here, but I think this was the next best thing for him."