Whenever Andy Murray does indeed retire—and it could be as early as Monday, as he suggested in a teary press conference Friday that the upcoming Australian Open could be his last tournament—the tennis landscape will have lost one of its great pillars, and the tennis culture will be depleted.
First, his on-court achievements: Murray is a surefire, no-doubt-about-it, first-ballot Hall of Famer. A brilliant tactician, he won three majors—shouldering immense pressure with grace to eventually become the first British man to win Wimbledon in 76 years—two Olympic gold medals and spent 41 weeks as the world's No.