Church tells Murray: God loves you whether you win or not

Published on Thursday 25 June 2009 23:04

IT WOULD appear the hype and expectation surrounding Andy Murray's Wimbledon campaign has reached truly biblical proportions.

As the Scots tennis star powered into the third round in ruthless fashion – demolishing

Latvia's Ernests Gulbis in just one hour and 28 minutes – a sign at the nearby Emmanuel Church which proclaimed "Win or lose Andy, God loves you anyway," showed the extent of "Murraymania".

Earlier, the world No3 revealed that he had received a letter from Buckingham Palace congratulating him for winning the Aegon Championship at London Queen's Club.

The Queen praised the Scot's pre-Wimbledon victory for making history as the first Briton in 71 years to win at the venue.

Murray went online before yesterday's second-round clash with Gulbis to boast on Twitter that the Queen is a fan.

He told his 35,000 Twitter followers: "Got a nice letter from the Queen saying well done for winning Queen's. Put it in its own pile away from the bills. See you tomorrow."

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said the Queen wanted to acknowledge the victory that sparked "Murraymania".

He said: "The Queen sent a private note on 17 June congratulating Andy Murray on becoming the first Briton to win at the Queen's Club in 71 years."

• We'll be covering Andy Murray's third round match against Victor Troicka live online at Scotsman.com. The match is expected to be third to start on centre court on Saturday. Click here to join the action