French Open 2012: Virginia Wade might call Andy Murray a drama queen but she played in a much easier era He always keeps trying to improve his game, whether it be through lung-bursting training blocks in Miami over Christmas, or by breaking the bank to bring in a big-name coach like Ivan Lendl. He keeps pitching up, Grand Slam after Grand Slam, with his heart and mind fully committed to the task, even though his way has been blocked at every turn by a Hall-of-Fame talent: either Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic. It might sound obvious that a sportsman should be motivated for a big event, but Murray is an intensely driven man. And it is that quality, even more than his god-given talent, that has carried him to No. 4 in the world. Murray was a shell of a man when we spoke to him last night. He seemed completely washed out by the emotions of the day - the dejection of getting out of bed to find that he could barely put any weight on his left leg, followed by the mental turmoil of that catastrophic first set, and finally his own surprise that Nieminen had let him off the hook. Wade might call him a drama queen, but with all due respect for her marvellous achievements, she played in a much easier era. For all its grace and aesthetic beauty, modern tennis is a brutal business. Look at yesterday's match between Richard Gasquet and Grigor Dimitrov: there was one 36-shot rally which ended with Dimitrov crawling on his knees to his chair, gripped by agonising cramp in both legs, while Gasquet vomited on the court. These guys weren't faking. And neither, whatever Wade might say, was Murray.