Why Andy Murray must be crowned Sports Personality Of The Year winner

The middle-aged lady with the greying hair shuffles over to my table in a coffee shop at Brussels airport. “Excuse me, are you Graham?” she asks excitedly.

“No, afraid not,” I reply.

“Ah OK. I’m looking for someone from the Andy Murray Fan Forum you see, off the internet,” she explains politely in a smooth Scottish brogue, before turning her attention elsewhere.

It is the day before the 2015 Davis Cup final starts in Ghent and the anticipation, clearly, is at its peak.

Just as I’m wondering what to think about the brief conversation, a young lady turns round from the table in front of me. “I’m really sorry about that,” she whispers. “That’s my mum. When I was growing up, she always told me never to meet with strange men off the internet who I’d never seen before – and now look at her!”

Andy Murray inspires those that follow him – fans and team-mates alike – to do extraordinary things, it seems. And this pair of supporters are far from alone. The hotels and bars of Ghent – where the final is to be played – are packed for the weekend with a vast assortment of Britons hoping to witness a piece of sporting history.

And, looking back, that is exactly what they got. Murray, accompanied by his brother, Jamie, Kyle Edmund and James Ward pulled off a 3-1 victory over Belgium to become the first British winners of the team competition for 79 years.

On Sunday night, the Sports Personality of the Year prize will be awarded, in the words of the BBC, to “the sportsperson whose actions have most captured the public's imagination during 2015.” If Murray does not win it for creating yet another piece of British tennis folklore, it will be totally unjust.

The Davis Cup victory was the tennis equivalent of winning the World Cup, yet it was built squarely on the shoulders of one man. This is not to undermine the contributions of the other team members. No, for five years they toiled away, starting in the equivalent of the second division of the competition, and rose from the depths of beating a hopeless Turkey team in Bournemouth in 2010 to the world group.

But since 2011, Andy Murray has been at the forefront of the campaign, dragging Great Britain to the pinnacle of team tennis. Four years – again the equivalent of a World Cup or Olympic cycle – of hard work. Indeed, this arduous journey began before his 2013 Wimbledon triumph and the length of commitment is merely one reason why it might be considered greater than the major victory.

Indeed, en route to his incredible win at the All England Club, Murray beat one top 20 player. Of course, his seven matches were gruelling enough and having the easier early games comes with the territory of being one of the top seeds, usually along with a rest day between rounds.

In the Davis Cup however, he routinely beat top 20 players in five sets and often played three matches inside three days to thwart other top nations with greater strength in depth. Take the quarter-final against France. Murray beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (ranked 10), won the doubles with Jamie against Nicolas Mahut (ranked 71) and Tsonga, and finally won the tie by beating Gilles Simon (ranked 15).

Of course there was immense pressure on Murray in the Wimbledon final – the whole nation wanted him to beat favourite Novak Djokovic. But in the Davis Cup, there was a different type of pressure. One defeat would have almost certainly spelt the end of four years of hard work for him and his team. He was unreasonably expected to win every time he stepped on court.

There was the odd invaluable contribution from team-mates as well, James Ward beating John Isner of the USA in the last 16 being the most obvious. But even that may not have happened if it weren’t for Murray mentoring and guiding the team with his talismanic presence. Ward has been away training with Murray in Miami in the past and branded him a “beast” for his ferocious work ethic. Doubtless he provided the 28-year-old and the rest of the team with some of the sharpest tactical advice around as well.

Indeed, when Leon Smith, the GB team captain was asked where Murray’s efforts rank in terms of British sporting achievements, he said: “It has to be one of the best of all time. I mean, it's incredible for all of us to watch how he's managed to win that many rubbers, have that many wins, especially when you look back at the tie with France and also the Australia match. Obviously there was a lot of fatigue but he managed to find a way through.”

“It was absolutely incredible, amazing.”

Just to clarify, that is 11 matches Murray won without reply in the campaign, with Ward’s victory being the only rubber he was not involved in. Only John McEnroe has topped that in a year, with 12 wins in 1982 – but some of those matches were not "live" rubbers with a result hinging on them.

“I know [Andy] will say it's about the team, but we are really thankful for what he does,” Smith added after the trophy was won. Humble and modest too? What more could we want in a British hero?

Nothing, is the answer, and thousands of fans already agree. A brief glimpse at the Andy Murray Fan Forum reveals a latest entry, with 455 threads and 119,597 posts, entitled “Andy Rules”. He does – and they should make it official on Sunday night.