Jamie tips Andy to set up historic final double
JAMIe MURRAY is safely into one Grand Slam final and now he is backing his brother Andy to join him and make history. Jamie, reaching the Australian Open men’s doubles final at the first time of asking with new partner Bruno Soares, believes his more illustrious brother is well equipped to deal with the thunderbolts coming his way this morning from Milos Raonic.
The world No 2 takes on the 6ft 5in Canadian at around 8.30am (GMT) in an attempt to reach his fifth final at Melbourne Park. He is trying to ensure the Murrays become the first brothers in the post1968 Open era to reach finals in different events at the same Grand Slam. Jamie has faced Raonic in the doubles and reckons his sibling will prevail after a difficult battle. ‘ Obviously his whole game is built around his serve. If you can nullify it, that is a huge part of his game that you have taken away from him,’ said the 29-year-old. ‘Andy is one of the best returners in the world. His movement is so great that hopefully he can get himself into position so he is the one moving Raonic around the court and dictating more of the longer rallies.
‘It will be a tough ask. The guy has not lost a match this year. Last year was a bit difficult for him — he had a lot of problems with a foot and that is why his ranking dropped. But he has a new coach this year in Carlos Moya and I am sure he will be feeling confident about his game.
‘But I still like Andy’s chances. He tends to play well against big servers — he has a good record against John Isner and Ivo Karlovic, those sort of guys. I still feel that if Andy plays his best then his level is better than Raonic’s.’
A slight anxiety for Murray fans will be that his last Grand Slam defeat was against 6ft 8in Kevin Anderson. That was, however, on the Louis Armstrong court at Flushing Meadows which he particularly dislikes, and this will be on the Rod Laver Arena where he has had so much success. Murray was preoccupied in New York with the Davis Cup campaign, although there are distractions this fortnight, too, with the pregnancy of wife Kim.
Raonic has a few idiosyncrasies. He plays with a long sleeve round his arm and uses a mouthguard, which is designed to stop his teeth grinding and help with back problems seemingly connected to his mouth. Andy (left) has never heard of that before in tennis. ‘I’ve seen it in other sports,’ he said. ‘I’ve heard they have gumshields that supposedly help with breathing.’ Tomorrow morning, after the women’s final, Jamie will try to win his first men’s doubles Grand Slam after making
the champi- onship decider at Wimbledon and the uS Open, not to mention winning the Davis Cup. The opposition will be canny veterans Radek Stepanek, 37, of the Czech Republic and Canada’s Daniel Nestor, 43.
After splitting with Australian John Peers, it has been an excellent start for Jamie with his Brazilian partner, and they comfortably saw off France’s Adrian Mannarino and Lucas Pouille 6-3, 6-1 in the semi-final.
The move looked a risk because Jamie and Peers were so consistent that they made the field for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, but it seems to have paid off. ‘I really believed we could do a lot of great things on the court,’ said Murray, of a partnership that has also won the Sydney Open this month. ‘ You never know exactly how it’s going to work out, but I think from our first match in Doha we had good vibes.
‘ We felt comfortable, I knew what he was trying to do on the court, and he’s really good at trying to set me up to do what I do best, up at the net.
‘I trust myself that I can perform in those matches. I believe Bruno can as well. The mentality we’ve got bodes well, the kind of chemistry we seem to have struck up these last couple of weeks.
‘Those guys (Nestor and Stepanek) have been at the top of the game for longer than maybe I’ve been alive. They’ve won Grand Slams and Masters series, everything there is to win. They’ll come into the match with a lot of experience.’