Murray's win was in typical British fashion

He took his time and took five epic sets to do it but Andy Murray finally ended Fred Perry's unwanted 76-year reign.

In New York, the “City of Dreams”, a young Scot banished the last great Briton to history proper as he defeated Novac Djokovic in five sets to claim the US Open and help a nation wake up to a new reality.

Forget the Olympians, forget the Paralympians, forget the cricket and forget the Euros.

Forget the oh-so-nears of the recent past in rugby, football and, of course, tennis. We have a true British champion.

The UK finally has its first tennis grand slam champion for three-quarters of a century. And it was done in true, we-can’t-ever-make-you-comfortable brilliance that only we Brits can manage.

After winning his junior crown here in 2004, Murray made us all wait eight long years and four oh-so-near finals before finally helping us rest and make us all late for work in the process.

In the small hours UK-time, a nation saw this boy from Dunblane master the former world No 1, overcome setbacks that would have finished him only a year ago, and powered on to triumph at Flushing Meadows.

He says that defeating Roger Federer at Wimbledon on his way to London 2012 gold was the turning point in his mentality.

So maybe don’t forget this one Olympian... Not yet. He’s not going to keep us waiting for four more years.