Andy Murray Named Team GB Olympic Flag Bearer

“I’m going to blame the photographers for what happened last night because I was given directions and then I ended up putting the flag in front of Princess Anne’s face”, Murray said to chuckles from the media. I obviously have great memories of London.

“By far it’s the proudest moment in my professional career”, he said. I felt proud and humble. “I hope I can perform well over the next nine or 10 days”, he added. I will try to get a bit of practice in though!

By turning the tables in the Olympics, Murray put himself in the conversation with Federer, Djokovic and Rafael Nadal and rode the momentum to his first major title at the U.S. Open later that summer.

In singles, he’ll face Viktor Troicki of Serbia, someone Murray has beaten all seven times they’ve played. “I was speechless”, explained Murray who said that England had made the decision based on his “perseverance and spirit”.

Serena Williams begins her bid for a fifth Olympic gold medal against Australia’s Daria Gavrilova but there will be no all-Williams final after Venus was also drawn in the top half. I think she was OK about it.

Finally, talking about the high profile withdrawals from the event, most specifically that of Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka, Murray commented, ‘It was unfortunate, they are two guys who are great players and capable of winning events like this. Nothing changes, I don’t look ahead.

Murray did not attend the ceremony in London because tennis is one of the first sports to start and he did not want to impact his medal chances.

“We will have a good shot at a medal”, the world’s fifth-ranked doubles player said when speaking to the Daily Mail on Sunday.

World number two Murray discovered he was to be his country’s flag-bearer on Tuesday night as he was about to go to sleep at the athletes village. “Winning a medal is very hard but to do it with your brother would be very, very special and we are really motivated by it and taking it extremely seriously”.

He will also partner up with older brother Jamie in the men’s double competition. The feat entails winning each of the four Grand Slam tournaments (January’s Australian Open, May’s French Open, June’s Wimbledon Championships and August’s US Open) at least once, though not necessarily in a given year.

The number one British tennis player was displaying the flag to the media, standing beside Princess Anne, who is herself a former Olympian and now an International Olympic Committee member.