Last night, just after 2am British Time, British gold medallist Andy Murray finally beat the hoodoo of 76 years since Fred Perry won Wimbledon, to become the latest British man to win a Tennis Grand slam at the US Open.
Murray beat Novak Djokovic in five sets, having initially led with the first two sets, only for his opponent to level up as the match progressed.
In a year of sporting greatness for British Athletes, Murray’s achievement could be set to eclipse them all. So significant was the victory that some newspapers even held back their print deadline until the wee small hours to include the story.
It’s interesting to note that those that did hold back were Scottish newspapers, with the likes of The Times, The Guardian and The Daily Mirror going at their usual time and not including the story at all.
Here’s what was printed in reaction to the victory;
The Scottish Sun
The Scottish Sun carries the headline ‘New York Giant’, with an article written by Douglas Walker, the piece claims that Murray ‘blasted his way to Grand Slam Glory’ with coverage running across the front page, as well as a spread across pages 4 and 5 and the back page. The UK version of The Sun led with the Team GB victory parade and the headline; 'Thanks Yoooooou!' with the Olympic rings uses to represent the 'o's'.
The Scottish Daily Express
The Daily Express features the main headline ‘New Way to Beat Diabetes’ as its splash, but in a side panel depicts Andy Murray’s reaction to victory, with the headline ‘Mighty Murray makes Grand Slam History’. Written by Brian Swanson and Stephen Wilkie, the story itself is given page three to itself, describing the sportsman as a ‘Braveheart’, while Murray’s picture is also featured on the backpage, with a turn to page 3. Other sporting stories on the backpage include stories on Rangers, Scotland’s under-21’s and Scotland managing Craig Levein asking supporters not to boo during tonight’s World Cup Qualifying match at Hampden.
The Daily Record
The Record, the Scottish sister title of The Daily Mail, bears the headline ‘3am: Andy is US open Champ LEGEND. The victory is covered by Heather Greenaway on pages 4 and 5 and includes Tweets by Piers Morgan and Jimmy Carr. The main back page story is also dedicated to Murray, describing him as ‘The King of New York’.
The Times
The Times runs with a front and back cover depicting the Team GB victory parade in London yesterday, with the headline in Gold 'Parade's End' with its own masthead also specially printed in Gold.
The Daily Mirror
The Daily Mirror also leads with the Team GB victory parade, with a circular picture around Mo Farrah doing the 'MoBot' and a picture featuring the huge crowds that came out on the streets of London to cheer on the athletes. The headline is 'Thanks a Million!' alongside a picture of gold medalist Jessica Ennis showing off her medal.
