JUST another week in the life of Jamie Murray. Here is a list of his chores. Share No 1 Court with Martina Navratilova and a full-size orchestra as its new roof is tested for the first time. Launch personal YouTube channel. Appear on Lorraine. Sign new kit deal with PlayBrave. Await update on mum’s summit meeting with first minister Nicola Sturgeon on securing our legacy for the sport on Scotland. Oh and don’t forget to squeeze in four days of high quality training in La Manga before flying out to Paris to attempt to win a maiden French Open doubles title. It is the kind of schedule which belies the suggestion that the 33-year-old’s horizons don’t stretch beyond his status as Andy’s big brother.
It is quite a lot to get through but let’s deal with the last item first. Just one Murray will be in the draw when Roland Garros gets under way tomorrow and for all that there has been a crowd-pleasing notion of Dunblane’s doubles dream team battling it out together in the men’s doubles at Wimbledon in just over a month’s time while Andy plays his way back into his body after January’s hip resurfacing, that may well also be the case at SW19. Jamie, the world’s eighth best doubles player, has his own goals. He and his Brazilian partner Bruno Soares, ranked one spot higher, are competitive in every tournament they enter.
While there isn’t too much to be gained trying to second guess exactly how Andy’s hip will hold up as he bids to return to the singles court, a better bet for seeing the Murrays in tandem could be September’s Murray Trophy event at Scotstoun in Glasgow, an event which Jamie has been closely involved in organising.
“It is more dependent on Andy really and where he is physically and how he wants to take things,” Jamie told Herald Sport. “I know just now he is trying to get back to what, as Teresa May might have said, is ‘strong and stable’. That is his goal. He is not putting a time limit on it. He just wants to do it right, get back out on court, train well, sees where his level is at and goes from there. I am sure he is not thinking ‘I’m desperate, I have to come back and play Wimbledon this year’. What is important is just getting his body right to the point where he can get out, train properly and find out what is possible because he still doesn’t know that.
“I’ve been involved in the Murray Trophy event quite a lot so far - the planning of it, trying to bring in partners to the event, working with the logistics team, making sure the event is as good as it possibly can be. I should be playing there as well, although I don’t know who with. Could we see the Murray brothers playing doubles there? Perhaps.”
Not that he and his brother haven’t been seeing more of each other. One of the fringe benefits of Andy’s hip rehab is the fact he is in Surrey more regularly, which means Jamie gets to spend at least a little more time with his nieces Sophia and Edie. “It has been different,” admits Jamie. “Any time I come back from a tournament good or bad, he is at home. So I have spent a lot more time with him over the last year or so. And I am sure it has been great for him to be able to see his kids growing up.”
Jamie is growing used to greats of the sport asking to play doubles with him. Used to cutting a swathe through Grand Slam mixed doubles events with Martina Hingis or Viktoria Azarenka in tow, on Sunday it was the turn of Navatilova, the 18-time major singles winner. With both of Wimbledon’s two main show courts now guaranteed play regardless of the elements, it was quite an honour to be asked to be part of the plush opening ceremony. “I remember watching on TV when Wimbledon first had the roof on, it was such an iconic moment for the club,” said Jamie. “I still remember that to this day, watching [Andre] Agassi, Steffi Graf and Tim [Henman] playing at the launch. So it was amazing to be invited to be part of it.”
As for the YouTube channel, it all taps into a desire – one Jamie shares with the rest of his family – to sell his sport and make tennis more accessible to the matches. A cornucopia of material will go on there, not least coaching hints and tips which children can access for free, rather than having to stump up for one-on-one tuition. “I think I would like to coach at some point, although I don’t know whether that would be about trying to coach on the tour,” he said. “I am a bit more passionate about trying to help some of the younger kids on their journey. There are so few people, especially in Scotland, who have done that whole journey. That is the beauty of YouTube, it is a great platform for online tutorials, people can go through it at their own time and their pace and it is free. I hope people find it beneficial, and it can improve their game, whatever level they are playing at.”
As for the ongoing business of securing a Murray legacy, let’s just say the 33-year-old is waiting to be convinced about the merits of the new LTA national academy which Tennis Scotland is running at the University of Stirling, without a single Scottish teenager making the cut for the first tranche of entrants. “It is unfortunate that there aren’t going to be Scottish kids involved in it,” he said. “I’m not sure what the benefit for Scottish tennis is to have a national academy which doesn’t have any of our kids in it. We will just have to wait and see. I guess the positive thing in a way is if we do have better kids there, then ultimately it will be a good environment for them to come and train. Ultimately all I want is for British tennis and Scottish tennis to be successful.”
Follow Jamie on https://www.jamiemurraytennis.com/
Or: www.jamiemurraytennis.com/youtube
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