Agony to the end for Andy Murray, the best British sports person of all

With Andy Murray, it was always going to end this way. A sporting reconstruction of the Mel Gibson film, The Passion of the Christ. So much pain, so much suffering. Really, did we need to go through all that? Did he need to go through all that? We know Murray’s story, just as we knew the likely ending. Agony, always agony. And yet, somehow triumphant, even in defeat.

Murray lost on Tuesday, because he finally had to admit his race was run. He will not play one last, faux-glorious, Wimbledon singles farewell. A spinal cyst, and the operation to address it, did for him, peculiarly in a way far bigger surgical ordeals never could.

He will play doubles later this week, he may play