Three Wimbledon titles a realistic aim for Andy Murray

After Andy Murray overcame world number one Novak Djokovic to become the first British Wimbledon gentleman’s singles champion for 77 years, speculation has turned to how many more championships he can lift at the All England Club and to the honours with which this year’s historic victory may be awarded.

The gentleman’s championship at Wimbledon is one in which repeat winners are more common than those that strike just once.

Murray – along with Djokovic – are among just seven one-time-only champions since 1990, making the 7/4 about his 2013 triumph being his sole career grass court Slam worth swerving.

The stars of seven-time winner Roger Federer and – to a lesser extent – Rafael Nadal (away from his beloved French Open clay) seem to be on the wane and Murray could find himself duking it out with Djokovic in many Grand Slam finals over the next few years, with Juan Martin Del Potro and the up-and-coming Jerzy Janowicz nipping at the pair’s heels.

It’s even money that he joins the famous five of Rod Laver, John Newcombe, Jimmy Connors, Stefan Edberg and Nadal on a brace of titles and a juicy 5/1 that he can emulate BBC pundits John McEnroe and Boris Becker by raising the golden pineapple aloft on three occasions.

At 26 it’s unlikely Murray will have too many years left at the top of such a physically demanding profession, with all-time Wimbledon greats Pete Sampras and Federer – unrivalled on seven wins each – winning their last titles at the ages of 28 and 30 respectively. As a result bets on two or three wins for Murray at SW19 seem most prudent.

Murray will enter his next Grand Slam – at Flushing Meadows – as the defending champion and odds of 7/4 say that it will be there that the Scot clinches his next Grand Slam win, whilst it’s 5/1 that he has to wait until the Australian Open of 2014 to taste Open Championship glory once more.

Murray is clearly arriving at the very top of his game – having reached the final of the last four Grand Slams he’s entered – and could well be worth backing to win over 4.5 career slams at 5/6 given he could take his tally to three with a successful US Open title defence.

Doing so would surely only heighten the clamour for some official recognition for the son of Dunblane, who is already 1/16 for the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year gong.

Meanwhile the odds suggest it’s far from impossible that Her Majesty the Queen may get involved with the post-Wimbledon backslapping too, with the 2013 champion as short as 4/1 to be dubbed ‘Sir’ Andy Murray in the 2014 New Year’s Honours List.

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