HE is, almost incidentally, the million dollar man.
But tennis on the doubles circuit has brought more to Jamie Murray than the $1,305,433 he has earned in an 11-year career on the ATP tour.
The 29-year-old Scot has won 12 titles as a men's doubles player and has the considerable bonus of being a Wimbledon champion with his mixed doubles triumph with Jelena Jankovic in 2008. But now he is seeking to share the joy of doubles with children in his homeland.
Bridge of Allan on Saturday will host a tennis event that offers children an afternoon of enjoyment and a chance to win a trip to the Davis Cup tie against France at Queen's Club, London, next month.
"It promises to be a great day," says Murray. "Doubles is a more social event and it is the format that is played most often at most clubs. I see this as a good way to get kids playing tennis and enjoying themselves at the same time. Frankly, kids enjoy doubles and there is not enough of it."
The competition is for children who are 12 and over with a coach entering a team of two girls and two boys. Matches are times to 15 minutes and have special features such action replay (one let), joker (one cheat) and super sub (the chance to bring in another player).
The winning team plus coach receives flights, transfers and tickets to the doubles rubber against France, a match in which Jamie will almost certainly play.
The tie will be part of a crucial summer for Murray as he and his partner, Australian John Peers sit sixth in the race to qualify for the end of season finals at the 02 in London in November. Eight pairs qualify.
"We will have to do well at Wimbledon and the US Open to push on," he says. But he is hopeful of progress at SW19. "I enjoy playing on grass and the five-set format means the better player should win as it takes away what can be the lottery of the championship tie-break."
His collaboration with Peers has already provided one title this year and he is far from the dark days of 2011 when he had no regular partner.
The Grand Slams and the Davis Cup beckons for Murray. But first there is Bridge of Allan.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article