Media call for 'Sir Andy'

British newspapers were in raptures on Monday after Andy Murray's Wimbledon win, with several calling for him to receive a knighthood for ending the country's 77-year wait for a men's champion.

Every single national daily devoted its front page to Murray's straight-sets victory over Novak Djokovic on Sunday, with almost all of them splashing huge pictures of the 26-year-old brandishing the trophy in the blazing sun.

The Times newspaper led the calls for Murray to be knighted.

"Arise Sir Andrew, knight of the holy grail," it said.

"Impossibly, dreamily, unbelievably and yet somehow almost easily, somehow almost inevitably, Andy Murray won the Men's Singles final at Wimbledon yesterday," it said.

The Times came swathed in a huge souvenir wraparound picture of Murray surrounded by a sea of spectators as he climbed into the families' box at Wimbledon's Centre Court, with the headline: "The History Boy".

The 77-year gap between the last British winner, Fred Perry, was an "awfully long time", it said, noting that Murray was the "first Brit to win the title in short trousers", as in Perry's time male tennis players wore long ones.

The Daily Mail reported Murray would be recommended for a knighthood.

"Now it'll be arise Sir Andy!" said the Mail's front-page headline over a picture of Murray kissing the golden Wimbledon trophy.

It said that sources in Prime Minister David Cameron's Downing Street office said the government would pass his name to Britain's Honours Committee in the same way it had done with cyclist Bradley Wiggins after he won the Tour de France last year.

The Sun, Britain's biggest selling newspaper, typically punned on Murray's first name with its headline "And of Hope and Glory".

"Finally, after 77 years, 15 PMs, three monarchs ... Brit man wins Wimbo", the tabloid said. It also came with a pullout section saying Murray had been "Born to Wim."

Agence France-Presse

(China Daily 07/09/2013 page24)