Jamie Murray column: Men's doubles disappointment, mixed doubles success, Andy partners up with Serena
During Wimbledon, six-time Grand Slam doubles champion Jamie Murray is writing a column for BBC Sport. In his second, he discusses his mixed start to the tournament, brother Andy’s partnership with Serena Williams, and his ambition to help the tennis stars of the future.
My men’s doubles partner Neal Skupski and I lost in the first round of Wimbledon on Friday and it was a disappointing result. We got outplayed by Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek and lost 2-6 7-6 (7-2) 3-6 6-1 6-4.
Those guys played really well. They played very aggressively and were serving big, so we just got overrun a bit, which was unfortunate.
Play had started on Thursday but was suspended because of bad light, and it was disappointing for us not to be able to finish the match then because we were looking stronger, but that was just bad luck on our part and it didn’t work out so well for us.
Unfortunately, it was just one of those things. It’s only really at Wimbledon that it happens – at other tournaments, it only occurs if there are strong winds or you get rain. It’s happened to me a few times before and it is never ideal because you have to start again from scratch; it’s a new day, new feelings.
It also gives the players of both teams time to speak to their coaches, and to get a better handle on what has been happening in the match.
It changes the momentum in a way because it’s a fresh start. We were just unlucky because I think we were the only court that didn’t finish that night.
Neither Neal nor I felt that we did a lot wrong. It’s a new partnership and I think we both felt good together on the court.
We didn’t have great results instantaneously but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to be a good team and have a successful partnership going forward. We haven’t lost any belief at all in the team. We just have to look ahead now and prepare for the hard court season.
- Jamie Murray progresses in mixed doubles but goes out of men’s competition
‘I’m really happy we won our mixed doubles opener’
Later on Friday afternoon, I had my first round mixed doubles match with my partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands. We beat Joe Salisbury and Katy Dunne 7-5 7-6 (10-8) but it took me a little while to get going because it was pretty soon after the disappointment of the men’s doubles.
Bethanie is great fun, a great character and a great player as well, and she’s a good partner to have in that situation. I was really happy that we were able to get the win and hopefully we will have a good few matches together over the next week.
Moving from clay to grass takes a bit of adjusting. On clay, you’re sliding around, the ball is bouncing up and you’re having to play a lot of balls around shoulder height.
But then you get on grass and you need a lot of small adjustment steps. The ball is bouncing lower so you are using a lot of different, smaller muscles and you need a stability that maybe you don’t need on other surfaces.
You’re able to move the ball around a lot more too. On serve, you can swing the ball a lot more so you get a lot more help from the grass courts than you would on other courts.
I prefer playing on hard courts; that is where I have had all my best results throughout my career. I do like playing on grass, but it’s such a short season and sometimes it feels like it’s over before it’s even started.
‘Andy and Serena playing together is unique’
I think it’s really cool that Andy has partnered up with Serena Williams in the mixed doubles. We didn’t speak about it before it was announced, but it’s great for the event because it puts it in the spotlight a lot more than it normally would be.
You’ve got two greats of the game competing with each other. We never get that at a Grand Slam, so it’s a unique situation.
Hopefully, they can compete hard and play until the end of the tournament because it would be great for the event of mixed doubles.
There was a lot of build-up pre-match and it was fun to see them playing in front of a packed Centre Court on Saturday night.
‘I want to coach when I finish playing’
I have recently launched a YouTube channel because I wanted to document my life as a tennis player, because it’s a very unique life that we live.
I wanted to showcase all the things we have to go through in our daily lives that the public wouldn’t see. They see us on TV hitting tennis balls but they don’t necessarily see what goes into getting us onto the match court in terms of the preparation.
There will also be a lot of instructional videos going up, with tips, advice and tactics on the game, and on training. Singles and doubles are very different and I just thought it would be interesting for people to see how we train.
I would like to coach once my playing career is over, but whether I would like to coach on the Tour, I’m not sure, because I have been travelling for so long.
I would like to help some of the younger players in our country. Not a lot of people have made it to the top of the game and can therefore share their experiences. I certainly feel that’s something I would be passionate and enthusiastic about.
Jamie Murray was speaking to BBC Sport’s Katie Falkingham at Wimbledon.
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