Murray/Soares Going For No. 1

Even elite tennis players, and Officers of the British Empire, sometimes take the Tube. Anyone riding the Jubilee line to North Greenwich station this week could find themselves looking across the carriage at Jamie Murray, who this year became the first Briton in singles or doubles to be the World No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings (he got there before his brother). 

For all that he has accomplished – including winning the Davis Cup last year, scoring his first two men’s doubles Grand Slam titles at this year’s Australian and US Opens, and being awarded the OBE – the older of the Murray brothers has been known to travel around London with an Oyster card. Last November, when he was playing with Australia’s John Peers, and when he qualified for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals for the first time, Murray chose to take the Underground rather than a tournament car on the way to The O2. At the end of his first year with a new partner, Brazilian Bruno Soares, Murray is once again part of the field, and he might again be commuting by Tube.

No doubt Murray will mostly remember last year’s Barclays ATP World Tour Finals for the hugely disappointing defeat against Bob and Mike Bryan, after he and Peers failed to convert their five match points, when any one of them would have taken them into the semi-finals. Now, with Soares alongside him, he has another opportunity to win the most exclusive tournament on the ATP World Tour.

Murray’s “old-school game” has pleased the traditionalists in tennis, including David Macpherson, an Australian who for more than a decade coached the Bryan brothers.

“Jamie plays differently to most of the guys today. It’s obviously a great story that Andy Murray’s brother has come up so big in doubles, but even without that, Jamie is an interesting story. He plays some very attractive tennis. He has shots that hardly anyone else has,” said Macpherson. “He has beautiful touch, he has a nice lob, he uses dinks, and he gets to net. Jamie plays a kind of old-school tennis, and people love to see that. Over the last few years, Jamie has worked hard on his game, and he has really developed as a player. Every part of his game has improved, but his serving has got a lot more accurate and reliable. His returning has also improved immensely.”

On becoming the World No. 1 this year, Murray reflected on how he almost quit. “It’s an awesome feeling to get there, especially when you consider how close I came to packing it all in a few years ago. If it weren’t for my wife, Ale, and coach, Louis Cayer, who knows where I’d be now? They both believed that I could do great things. It took me a lot longer to realise it.”

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Of late, Jamie hasn’t had to look too far afield for inspiration. “I guess that over the last few years, seeing Andy do well all the time, I’ve wanted some of that success as well. I think the past 18 months, I have started to really show what I can do on the tennis court,” he said.

Only one Murray brother has ever won two Grand Slams in the same season and it’s the one who you might encounter on the Jubilee line, who spoke at the US Open of “starting to move out of Andy’s shadow a little bit”. As Jamie said in New York: “Look, he’s had a great year, but he couldn’t win this one [the US Open] and I did so, yeah, get it up you, Andy.”  •