Murray optimistic about chances of recovering from Wimbledon agony

Andy Murray has expressed confidence in his ability to overcome the disappointment that followed his Wimbledon final defeat to Roger Federer in time to challenge for Olympic gold at London 2012.

The world number four came the closest that he has yet to claiming a Grand Slam title in his fourth final, taking the first set before being outclassed from the point in which rain forced a tense encounter under the centre-court roof.

Such a shattering loss after becoming the first male British finalist in 74 years proved difficult to accept. He burst into tears during his post-match address then opted to go on holiday, vowing: “I won’t practise until my mind is right”.

Now Murray is ready to return to Wimbledon and go one better when representing Great Britain in the Olympics, with further incentive provided by his early exit on his Games debut at Beijing 2008, falling in straight sets to Lu Yen-hsun.

The Scot attributed that failure to becoming too immersed in the Olympic experience, spending too much time watching other sports and working with other athletes and not enough focussing on tennis, but has vowed to avoid a repeat.

The 25-year-old also swatted aside suggestions that his chances of gold have been significantly enhanced by the withdrawal of 2008 winner Rafael Nadal, pointing out that as third and fourth seeds, they’d have been in separate halves of the draw.

Murray is the third favourite to triumph at 4/1, behind his Wimbledon conqueror Federer (2/1) and the man that the Swiss legend replaced as world number one Novak Djokovic (13/8).

Upsets are fairly frequent at the Olympics though, perhaps due to three-set format affording less margin for complacency, with one example being the fact that Chilean players have claimed gold, silver and bronze medals across the last two editions.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.