Tennishead Q&A with Jamie Murray
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Fans outside Britain may be forgiven for knowing Jamie Murray only as Andy’s big brother – or as the owner of the biggest hair in tennis.
Followers of the game in the UK, however, now know the aggressive left-hander as a force to be reckoned with on the doubles world tour.
The 22-year-old had a breakthrough year in 2007, which saw him pick up three Tour titles, not to mention a Wimbledon mixed doubles crown with Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic.
The elder statesman of the Murray family has firmly established himself as an international star and won his fourth ATP doubles trophy (and his first with new partner Max Mirnyi) in Florida in February.
TH: We know you were a good junior singles player, and we read that once you realised you weren’t going to play top level singles, you decided to play doubles. Is that how your decision to play doubles came about?
JM: “I guess so. I was still playing singles and obviously playing doubles at tournaments, and I was doing well with my doubles, and my ranking got high enough to play Challenger events, and then I played a few tournaments with Andy and we did pretty well, and I got my ranking higher to the point where I could get into the Tour events. So for me it was an easy decision to start playing at the highest level I could. I mean obviously it happened that it was doubles. I don’t regret it, I don’t think I was really ever going to be a great singles player. Although having said that, if I was to play singles now, I’d play better than I did for sure when I was playing more regularly. But that’s the way it is, and for me there’s nothing better than playing at the highest level, and playing Grand Slams and the Masters Series and stuff, that’s what it’s all about.”
TH: Are the demands for a doubles player different than for singles?
JM: “Yeah, I think it’s a lot more tactical in terms of hitting certain shots into certain places, where I guess singles is a lot more open because there’s a much bigger court.”
TH: You’re very sharp at the net. Is that something you’ve been working on recently?
JM: “Yeah, I think you have to be to be honest. I’m always working on trying to be as fast as I can around the net, it helps to steal points, and I think that’s probably one of my biggest strengths as a doubles player.”
TH: So speed of reaction is more important in doubles?
JM: “Yes, because the distance [from your opponent] is much shorter. In singles you’ve got the full court to react to the ball, whereas in doubles the guy hits a return and his opponent is right at the net to put the ball away.”
TH: How do you train for that?
JM: “One of the drills we do most is me standing right on top of the net, and the guy firing balls at me. Sometimes you get hit, but that’s the only way to improve!”
TH: Communication is obviously really important in doubles. You talk to your partner behind tennis balls. Is that to disguise what you’re saying?
JM: “Well yes because it’s not too hard to understand what someone’s saying, because really you’re just saying to your partner where you’re going to serve, and there’s only really three serves you can hit. So, yes, good communication is obviously really important because you want to give yourself the best shot at winning, and you’re going to have a better chance if you play as a team and not as two individuals.”
TH: Your relationship with your coach Louis Cayer has obviously been really productive and he has a great reputation. Is he travelling with you all the time?
JM: “No not at all. He does maybe 14 weeks a year with me, which is not a whole lot considering I’m probably away for 30 weeks a year, maybe a bit more. As I’ve said before, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Louis. When he started teaching me and [my former doubles partner] Colin Fleming we were ranked 200, which is reasonable, but not the level I’m playing at now, and he totally transformed the way we played and now we’re at this level getting to play these tournaments.”
TH: It seems like every goal he’s set for you you’ve achieved. He said you’d get into the top 30 in 2007, which you did. So what goals have you got for 2008?
JM: Not really so much a specific ranking, I think more in my partnership with Max [Mirnyi], to really become a dominating team on the Tour. If we do that then the results will take care of themselves and the ranking will go up, but I think we definitely want to try to be one of the top eight teams at the end of the year to qualify for the Masters Cup.”
TH: How did your partnership with Max come about because he’s got a formidable reputation hasn’t he?
JM: “His reputation speaks for itself, he’s won Grand Slams, he’s been No.1 in the world. I just sent him a few emails towards the end of the season asking him what he was doing because I’d heard that Jonas Bjorkman was going to play with someone else this year, and I think by the time he decided that, a lot of the teams had already been set for this year and he probably didn’t have too many more options! But, yeah, he decided to play with me, and I’m very grateful for that and hopefully we can make a successful team.”
TH: Obviously it’s only a team of two, but does one of you become the leader and presumably that’s him?
JM: “Yeah, I think every team will have a leader. He obviously brings the experience, he knows what to do to win big events, he’s been around on the tour a lot longer than I have, so he brings the experience, and I think I bring the youth and try to bring the energy to the team, jumping around and that sort of stuff [laughs].”
TH: On the subject of youth, most doubles players do tend to be older…
JM: “Yeah, of course. I think I was a different case to most people because most of the guys that are playing, especially at the top of the game, are a lot older. But I think all those guys played singles to a high level, and then moved over to doubles as their career maybe stalled, or was going backwards in singles, and they started to focus on doubles, when they were maybe 27, 28 and it’s like a new career for them. Whereas I didn’t go the singles route at all and just started playing doubles for the last 18 months, so I’ve started seven or eight years ahead of everyone else.”
TH: How did you enjoy playing with Liezel Huber at the US and Aussie Opens mixed events?
JM: “She’s good fun, she’s a really nice girl, we get on well and she’s a great competitor. I’d rather be playing with her than against her that’s for sure.”
TH: Will you be partnering her long-term?
JM: I don’t know, we don’t really talk about it to be honest. We decided to play the US maybe a week before the tournament, and we did well, we were close to getting to the final.”
TH: Who else do you travel with?
JM: “Well last year I didn’t really do travelling with anyone. Louis came to not really that many tournaments at all, maybe nine or 10 tournaments. I guess I was with Eric Butorac for most of the time, sometimes he had his coach with him, but then towards the end of the year I was on my own a lot of the time, which I didn’t really like because you lose direction and you’re just going day to day not really doing much. It’s good to have someone there you can hang out with, and you can practice with and do all your drills and make sure you’re sharp. So this year when Louis is not travelling I’ll make sure I have someone else there with me. [At the Aussie Open] I had my friend Alan MacDonald with me, and then Louis decided last minute he was going to come so I ended up with both of them which was good.”
TH: Of all the events you’ve been to, which one is your favourite?
JM: “Good question! I think the Montreal Masters Series, they put on a really good event. Even though I lost in the first round, I thought it was a pretty good tournament. Indian Wells is pretty amazing because they get so many fans, there’s a lot of show courts so you get a lot of fans coming to the matches. And there’s a lot of golf courses there as well which is good fun.”
TH: Do you get much time to play golf?
JM: “No…normally I don’t really like to play during the events because the last few times I’ve played you use different muscles so you get a bit stiff.”
TH: You play tennis left-handed and golf right-handed?
JM: “Yeah I think to be honest most left-handers at tennis would play golf right-handed, because you’re used to hitting double-handed backhands.”
TH: But do you do everything else left-handed?
JM: “Yeah like write left-handed, throw left-handed. I play football right-footed, though, but I guess that’s not so important.”
TH: You are a permanent fixture in the Great Britain Davis Cup squad now – do you enjoy playing Davis Cup?
JM: “Yeah, of course. One was at Wimbledon and it was Tim Henman’s last ever match so that was pretty amazing to be a part of that considering he was such an idol growing up. And the first tie I played was with Greg Rusedski, and that turned out to be his last match.”
TH: Did you know it was going to be Greg’s last match?
JM: “No, he didn’t tell anyone. I guess that must have been quite hard for him to play knowing it was going to be his last match. So two times I’ve played it’s been my partners’ last ever matches!”
TH: You played quite a good dead singles rubber against Robin Haase against the Netherlands in Birmingham last year, it was a tight match…
JM: “Yeah, I played pretty well. Probably the worst thing that could have happened was that I won the first set, because nobody really wanted it to drag out the last day when there’s nothing to play for [laughs]! Then I ended up losing the second set 7-6. But it was fun to play singles and there was no pressure so I could go for it and I played pretty well.”
TH: If you hadn’t gone into tennis do you know what you would have done?
JM: “That’s a good question. Ever since I was young I always wanted to be a tennis player, and I guess if I wasn’t able to make a career in doubles then I would start to struggle because it isn’t the most fun to be playing the Futures tour week in week out and going to strange places – it’s tough. So I guess I would start thinking about it more if I hadn’t started to do better in doubles.”
TH: Do you play computer games?
JM: “No. The only game I play with my brother sometimes is Pro Evolution Soccer on the PlayStation.”
TH: Favourite bands, music?
JM: “I prefer solo artists to be honest, like Ben Harper, slow stuff, I quite like that.”
TH: Favourite film?
JM: “Wedding Crashers I think is pretty funny. Anchorman, all that stuff.”
TH: Favourite book?
JM: “[Laughs] I’m reading a book right now called The Game, which is about pick-up artists and all their ‘strategies’ which is very interesting, put it that way, so now I’ve got a bit of time off I might try and put them into practice [laughs].”
TH: And finally, Scottish or British?
JM: “It doesn’t matter to me, I don’t care.”
