Jamie Murray believes the experience of playing in and winning the Davis Cup final last year can help him to win a first grand slam doubles crown at the Australian Open today.
Murray and Brazil’s Bruno Soares will take on Daniel Nestor of Canada and Czech Radek Stepanek at around 10am UK time, with Murray hoping it’s third time lucky after losing in the final at Wimbledon and the US Open last year.
Those two defeats came with the Scot's former partner, the Australian, John Peers, perhaps a contributing factor in his decision to switch to Soares at the start of this year. But big match experience counts for a lot and Murray now has it.
“I think for me it was huge to play four matches last year under that sort of pressure and expectation,” he said, referring to a Davis Cup run in which Britain beat United States, France, Australia and Belgium to win the trophy for the first time since 1936.
“To come through them in the way we did gave me a lot more trust in myself and the understanding of what it takes to deal with those situations and still be able to play your best tennis when it really matters, and I think I carried that on to the normal tour events and stuff.
“Getting to the Wimbledon final and the US Open final, we had to come through a lot of tough moments there. Here as well, we’ve played a lot of great tennis and all the tough moments we’ve had in this tournament we’ve been able to find a way through them and that’s testament to our mental strength in those situations.”
Murray does have one grand slam title to his name, of course, having won the mixed doubles at Wimbledon with Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic in 2007. If he were to win a doubles crown, though, his stock would rise even more.
“It’s huge,” he said. “Other than Davis Cup, the biggest thing I can win in my career is a grand slam.
“Unfortunately I lost two last year and it’s not a great feeling to do that.
“Of course you’re proud of yourself for getting that far, it’s a great achievement but once you get there you want to win obviously and we’ll be laying it on the line and doing our very best to win the trophy.”
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