‘I’ve Been Rejected So Far’: Murray Seeking Wimbledon Mixed Doubles Partner

Even rejection can’t dampen Andy Murray’s good spirits as he makes his comeback from hip surgery.

Murray, who made a winning return in doubles action on Thursday evening at The Queen’s Club, will be teaming up with Marcelo Melo next week in Eastbourne and with Pierre-Hugues Herbert at SW19. But the two-time Wimbledon singles champion has yet to find anyone to play mixed doubles with at the grass-court major.

“I have spoken to a couple of players. I’ve been rejected a couple of times so far,” he said with a smile. “I sort of asked a couple of people to play, but I need to wait and see how I’m feeling first, and if I feel good, then I would like to [play mixed doubles].”

When asked what reasons would anyone have for rejecting him, Murray responded, “I can think of many (smiling). I asked singles players who had already committed to playing doubles, and they didn’t want to commit to playing in three events, which I completely understand because it’s a lot. If you have ambitions to go far in the singles, you maybe don’t want to commit to playing all three.”

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Murray has reason to be confident that things will work out considering what happened with his partner in the men’s doubles draw. Herbert initially planned to play only singles, but later had a change of heart when he considered the opportunity to play with Murray at Wimbledon.

“My coach saw him a little while ago and told him that I might be playing doubles at Wimbledon,” said Murray. “He had said to my coach he wasn’t going to be playing doubles at Wimbledon. He was going to concentrate on singles at the French Open and Wimbledon…

“And then, I can’t remember exactly how long, but a couple of weeks ago, [he] got in touch. He said maybe [he] would play… And then I’m assuming he spoke with his team and thought it might be a nice thing to do.”

Murray and Herbert will be joining forces for the first time, but are both 2016 Wimbledon champions. Murray claimed the singles title that year with victory over Milos Raonic in the final, while Herbert teamed up with countryman Nicolas Mahut to win the doubles titles.