BROTHERLY SNUB
Jamie: I’m not going to play doubles with Andy at Wimbledon
Jamie murray has ruled out playing doubles with brother andy at Wimbledon this year, in a further indication that any comeback by his sibling is still some distance away.
While not ruling out such a union in the future, the world No 7 doubles player pointed out that he wanted to maximise his chances of winning the title — and that excludes his brother for now.
‘i don’t think we are going to play doubles at Wimbledon this year. i know a lot of people have talked about that but i don’t think that’s going to happen,’ he said after playing in the test event for the new roof over Number One court. ‘ These are the peak years in my career and if i play Wimbledon with someone who hasn’t hit a tennis ball in eight months, i’m kind of giving up one of those years, so that’s a big decision for me to take. ‘i want to give myself the best chance of winning the tournament and normally i would have a good chance with andy, but right now he’s not in his peak moment. We’d both like to play together one day.’ murray Jnr has been hitting very gently for strictly time-limited periods, sometimes at the all england Club, but is clearly not going to be rushing back. ‘He’s doing all right, he’s taking things slowly,’ said Jamie. ‘He’s on track with his recovery and what he is supposed to be doing now. it has been about four months or so. He is not putting a time limit on things, which is smart as he doesn’t need to.
‘He’s trying get his hip as strong as he possibly can and when he gets back out on court training, he wants to be in the best possible situation to find out what level he can get back to. it’s impossible to tell (how far he can get).
‘No one has done the surgery and come back to play singles so for him there are a lot of unknowns.’
Jamie was one of the star turns before a packed crowd on the arena that has cost around £200million to refurbish and which can now house 12,345 spectators.
John mcenroe, Venus Williams and Lleyton Hewitt were among the others players present for an afternoon of lighthearted entertainment, six weeks before the start of the Championships.
Wimbledon now has two venues that are immune to the rain, and Hewitt reported that the grass surface is as good as ever, despite changes to the stadium. For players and spectators alike the updated Number One, which took three years to complete, is like a slightly smaller Centre Court.
‘i was fortunate to play a couple of times on Centre Court with the roof and it’s such a similar feel to that now,’ said 2002 champion Hewitt. ‘it keeps the noise in and when the crowd erupts it’s hard to actually hear yourself out there it’s so loud.’