As Andy Murray closes the door on a career that has brought him so much joy and fulfilment for such a long time, the past few weeks have looked far from enjoyable. He has suffered multiple significant injuries, undergone surgery and been engaged in a race against time to be ready to compete in the Wimbledon singles draw, a race that ultimately proved futile.
Over the past few days, Murray has had to come to terms with the reality that he will not get another opportunity to compete as a singles player and to shift his focus to the doubles court. But solely playing doubles comes with one benefit: enjoyment.
In addition to his preparations for his men’s doubles first-round match with his brother, Jamie, on Thursday, Murray will join forces with Emma Raducanu in the mixed doubles draw after the pair received a wildcard on Wednesday.
The pairing, a meeting of Great Britain’s two active singles grand slam champions, was a long time coming. According to Murray, they had spoken about playing mixed doubles together as long ago as 2020 when they played against each other in mixed doubles during the Battle of the Brits event. Murray has played mixed doubles before, most notably he teamed up with Serena Williams in 2019, a partnership that was enjoyable for both players.
“We’d spoken about it a few years ago during the Covid year, but both of us ended up doing quite well in singles so it didn’t happen,” Murray said. “And then yesterday I was chatting to my team, they were discussing mixed and then last night I messaged her coach and just said: ‘Look, do you think this is something that maybe she’d be up for doing?’ He said it was worth asking. I asked her and she said yeah she’d be up for it. It should be fun. I have played mixed doubles a few times when I was young and then the last time was with Serena. I really enjoyed it, it’s something we rarely get to do.”
Despite receiving Murray’s text the night before her second-round singles match against Elise Mertens, Raducanu responded quickly: “Thankfully I got quite a quick reply,” Murray said. “It was quite late yesterday evening when I sent the message, it would have been after nine, so I was a bit worried she might be in bed, but I got a quick reply. She said: ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’”
Beyond the symbolism of their pairing, Murray’s decision to choose Raducanu as his final mixed doubles partner is an unconventional one. Raducanu is as inexperienced as players come in doubles, having only played the format once on the WTA tour in her career so far. Murray, though, is insistent that singles skills translate well to doubles.
“She’s a brilliant returner and great ball striker so I’d imagine she’ll deal with returning guys’ serves well,” he said. “And, when she’s getting into exchanges at the back of the court, she’ll be really good.”
For the time being, however, Murray’s focus will be on men’s doubles as the Murray brothers will share the court again at the end of Andy’s career after spending so many of their early years playing together.
He is, of course, a singles player in his soul, an individual who loves nothing more than being alone on the court and forced to fight and figure things out by himself. But it remains fitting and appropriately sentimental that Murray’s final Wimbledon will be played alongside his older brother, who has been with him every step of the way.
Although they grew up playing together, as juniors the Murray brothers rarely played on the same side of the net due to their 15-month age gap and the relatively strict age groupings in junior tennis. As professionals, though, they have played together many times, winning ATP titles together and, most notably, winning all three pivotal doubles matches together as Great Britain won the Davis Cup in 2015.
While the Murray brothers face a tough encounter against Australians Hijikata and Peers, scheduled as the third match on Centre Court, Murray will not step on the court simply to say goodbye: “It’s not like we’re going to roll over and lose the match,” he said. “We’ve got a good chance of winning. Me and Jamie play great doubles together and if both of us are fit and well on the court we can definitely win the match.”
Even though he will still be just 12 days out of surgery, the work that Murray has put into preparing it has been impressive. Just a few hours after his singles withdrawal, Murray emerged at Aorangi Park to train alongside his brother, and instead of playing a singles set as in previous days, they instantly switched to doubles drills. On Wednesday, they trained with Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram. They will step out on to Centre Court not for a sentimental farewell, but rather attempting to stay in SW19 for as long as they can.
Source: theguardian.com
