Andy Murray is considering teaming up with his brother, Jamie, at Wimbledon this year ahead of what may be his final appearance at the tournament before his retirement.
“I may do, yeah,” said Murray on his prospects of competing in doubles at Wimbledon. “I’m not 100% sure yet. My brother doesn’t have a partner for Wimbledon currently. We have spoken a little bit about it. So may do that, but not 100% sure yet.”
On Friday, Murray and Dan Evans were defeated 7-6 (6), 7-6 (3) by Thiago Seyboth Wild and Sebastián Báez in the first round of the men’s doubles at the French Open in a match that was postponed numerous times due to rain delays.
Afterwards, Murray said he and his brother will make a decision on competing at Wimbledon together in the coming days. The revelation prompted Evans to smile and gesture towards Murray: “You’ve got your story now,” he said. “That’s going to be the headlines.”
While Murray won the men’s singles title at Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016, the first British man in 77 years to do so, the 37-year-old has only competed in the doubles at Wimbledon once since 2005, when he was slowly coming back from hip surgery in 2019. Jamie Murray is a former doubles No 1 who has won 32 men’s doubles titles, plus two mixed doubles titles at Wimbledon.
Currently placed No 27 in the doubles rankings, Jamie Murray has been competing alongside Michael Venus of New Zealand this season. Venus, however, will begin the grass season alongside Neal Skupski. Jamie Murray takes up a new role as tournament director at Queen’s this year, meaning he will be unable to compete in the first two weeks of the grass court season. Despite this role, the 38-year-old said earlier this week that he does not plan to retire soon.
The Murray brothers have competed together on many occasions, including winning all three of Great Britain’s essential doubles matches en-route to their Davis Cup win in 2015.
Murray and Evans had opted to pair together in doubles with an eye on the Olympics, and they became the first non-French pair to receive a doubles wildcard in two decades, which the tournament director, Amélie Mauresmo, described as a gesture in recognition of Murray’s historic career. Great Britain can field two doubles teams and the probable scenario is the world No 5, Joe Salisbury, being selected alongside Andy Murray and the world No 10, Skupski, teaming up with Evans.
Although Murray has said that he is likely to retire after this summer, he is yet to either fully confirm his retirement or mention a specific date for when it might occur.
Additionally, Murray responded to a question about Alexander Zverev being allowed to compete on the tour while on trial. On Friday, Zverev’s public trial began in Berlin for allegations of the German physically abusing his ex-partner.
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“Clearly it’s a difficult one,” said Murray. “The players shouldn’t be the ones that are coming in here making comment on it. It’s the ATP who should make the decision and make the policy for what that would look like. I don’t think they did a particularly good job over the last few years with, I don’t know what the word is, in terms of in these situations when you might ask me about that in press. Like, it’s not for us to come up with what those policies are. It’s for the governing body to make that decision.”
Meanwhile, Andrey Rublev suffered a total meltdown during his 7-6 (6), 6-2, 6-4 third round defeat to Matteo Arnaldi, once again struggling to control his temperament under pressure. Rublev, the sixth seed, lost his composure early in the match and spent much of his time on-court throwing his racket, striking himself with the racket, screaming at his box and kicking his bench until he lost.
“I feel that I have a good game, I’m improving. The problem is the head, that today basically I kill myself, and that’s it,” Rublev said.
Jannik Sinner, the second seed, safely moved into the fourth round with a comfortable 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win over Pavel Kotov. He was joined there by the ninth seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas, who defeated Zhang Zhizhen of China 6-3, 6-3, 6-1.
Carlos Alcaraz, the third seed, closed off the night on Court Philippe-Chatrier by producing one of his best matches in recent months, outclassing Sebastian Korda, the 27th seed, 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-3.
Source: theguardian.com
