New Wimbledon men’s singles champion Andy Murray attended a reception hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron at Downing Street on Monday.

The 26-year-old Scot beat Novak Djokovic to end a 77-year British jinx at Wimbledon on a Sunday that will forever be etched in the nation’s sporting fabric.

The record books will show an almost routine 6-4 7-5 6-4 win for the boy from Dunblane but the three hours nine minutes it took to finish off a slightly below-par Djokovic felt like an eternity.

It was more tortuous than any of the five-set thrillers that Murray has contested in his career – most recently when he came from two sets down to beat Spain’s Fernando Verdasco in the quarter-finals to keep the dream alive.

With the 15,000 people on a baking Centre Court bellowing his name and millions glued to TV screens around the country Murray stepped up to serve at 5-4 needing four points to emulate Fred Perry who won the last of his three titles here in 1936.

Three points later, amid a cacophony of sound that even surpassed the decibel level reached when he won Olympic gold on the same stage last year, it was 40-0.

But this most unpredictable of Wimbledons, a tournament stacked with shocks and unexpected turns, was not about to let Murray achieve British sporting immortality without one final, stomach-churning, twist.

World number one Djokovic, who was ahead in both the second and third sets only to be engulfed by a tide of patriotic fervour, saved all three and then had a point to make it 5-5 after dribbling a drop volley off the net tape.

Had he done so the statue of Perry perched in the grounds of the All England Club might still be casting a shadow over British tennis but Murray, whose broad shoulders have carried home hopes for nearly a decade, would not stumble.

With his pulse racing and nerves on fire he conjured up a fourth matchpoint and this time Djokovic succumbed, netting a backhand to spark cheers from Land’s End to John O’Groats.