A doubles boost for special relationship
Brits Murray and Clarke team up with US’s Serena & Coco
THE ‘special relationship’ between Britain and the US may have its ups and downs in the world of diplomacy – but it is alive and well on the courts at Wimbledon.
US stars Serena Williams and Cori ‘Coco’ Gauff have teamed up with Andy Murray and fellow Briton Jay Clarke in the mixed doubles.
The new transatlantic alliance between Grand Slam-winning veterans Sir Andy and Miss Williams and the young rising stars has created unprecedented interest in the competition. After the identity of Sir Andy’s partner was finally confirmed, his mother Judy yesterday described the pairing with Williams as ‘box office gold’. She joked her son would need to let his partner be ‘boss’ as the key to success in the mixed doubles was ‘to keep the woman happy’.
It also emerged yesterday that teenage sensation Gauff had chosen British wildcard Clarke as her partner. Miss Gauff, 15, beat her heroine Venus Williams on her Wimbledon debut, Clarke, 20, could cause a similar upset when he plays Roger Federer today.
Miss Gauff and Clarke will face Sweden’s Robert Lindstedt, 42, and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, 22. Sir Andy and Serena – who have won 26 Grand Slams between them and are both returning from injury – will take on German Andreas Mies and his Chilean partner Alexa Guarachi.
Sir Andy was knocked back several times in his search for a mixed doubles partner, with even his 84year- old grandmother Shirley Erskine taking pity and offering to partner him.
Asked if her son and Williams could go all the way, Mrs Murray replied: ‘I think you kind of need to wait and see. On paper, they look like a really strong combination but actually anything can happen in mixed doubles.
‘The key to mixed doubles is to keep the woman happy. It’s the No1 thing that every coach will tell their male player – keep the lady happy. So if he can keep her smiling, then...’ When asked who should take the lead, she joked: ‘I would let her be the boss.’
Hopes for UK success at Wimbledon were dealt a blow yesterday as Kyle Edmund, 24, and Heather Watson, 27, crashed out.