SEE YOU JAMIE!
Murray hails Scots support network that makes atmosphere at Emirates homecoming so unique
HOME is where you make it. But it helps if the place just happens to be a perfect fit.
As Great Britain prepare for possibly their last-ever Davis Cup tie in Glasgow, a byproduct of the ITF remodelling the tournament into something supposedly more sleek and sellable, it’s hard not to feel a twinge of regret.
‘I love playing here,’ said Jamie Murray, fresh from a pop-idol experience practising in front of 3,000 screaming youngsters at the Emirates Arena yesterday.
‘For me, when I finish my career, these are going to be the best experiences I have ever had.
‘Coming here, playing for our country. The support we get is so incredible. Davis Cup brings that out, everyone is here to support one team or the other — so the atmosphere is really unique.’
Those are sentiments echoed by everyone in the GB set-up, not least captain Leon Smith, who was raised in the city and is a semi-regular at a certain football venue just across the road from this temporary tennis arena.
‘It’s amazing to get that welcome,’ said Smith of yesterday’s Tennis
for Kids activity, the kind of hearts-and-minds exercise in which the sport excels.
‘It’s something we wanted to do based on the fact it might be our last home tie for a long time — and maybe the last one here.
‘It was something myself and Jamie spoke about a while ago. We did a practice session in Rouen in France and they had brought in a whole bunch of kids, so we thought could we do it for us, maybe bigger and better?
‘You can see the smiles on the kids’ faces — having a laugh, a day off school is even better. To associate enjoyment with tennis is really important as well.
‘On the flip side, if you look at our guys, you’ll see a lot of smiles. Our guys were really getting into it, it meant a lot to them.
‘This feels like a home venue. And the Davis Cup deserves to be here. Every time we’ve played here the atmosphere has been the best from a pure noise level.’
This weekend’s tie will be the fourth played at the Emirates, while Braehead Arena previously hosted Davis Cup fixtures five times; in a country slow to capitalise on the Murray boys’ success, we’ve had plenty of opportunities to watch the best in person.
This week, with Andy Murray and Kyle Edmund missing, the onus will be on the supporting cast to upset the Uzbeks.
The elder Murray brother is obviously going to be key, beyond even his world-class skills in Saturday’s doubles rubber.
‘Jamie has amazing leadership qualities,’ said Smith. ‘He’s played a really good role with some of our younger players. It’s normal for him to look at some of the Scottish guys. But, with the doubles players we support, the wider group, he is involved.
‘He will watch their matches — you can get the livestream of Challenger matches — and send back match reports.
‘He has six Slam titles, he’s been No 1 in the world. So naturally, in the team room, people look up to him. He is very important to have around, with the presence and experience he has.
‘Uzbekistan, you start by stating the obvious — Denis Istomin is a very good player.
‘He is the highest ranked player across the two teams, from a singles point of view. He’s in good form, winning in Chicago last week, a 150,000 Challenger without dropping a set.
‘He will feel good to have won the Asian Games gold medal, a big deal for him, a big event.
‘That will be a test in itself, just by the format of the competition — two tough singles matches. And then I would have thought they’ll look to play him in the doubles, because he’s their best player by quite some distance.
‘So it’s going to be tough. We know that. That’s why, when we look at a tie like this, we prepare our players to be in the best possible condition. You look at their rankings on paper and go: “Oh”. But, when you delve into them a bit more, you realise that a couple of them had extremely strong junior records — both top-tenners.
‘Some of the people they’ve beaten this year are strong, so they can be dangerous.
‘They don’t travel so much out of their region, so their rankings aren’t going up at the same rate. But they’re good players.’
Smith famously had his passion for tennis ignited by volunteering as a ball boy when John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors did battle in the old Craiglockhart event in the late 1980s.
With the Davis Cup departing, probably for good, he hopes something can emerge to fill the void for the new generation.
‘It is really important Scotland, off the back of the Murrays, gets competitive tennis,’ he said. ‘It is about those kids hopefully seeing tennis and thinking they want to give it a go. ‘Whether that is the Tennis for
Kids programme, which has been well spoken about today — or making sure the powers-that-be build on what happens, to make sure there are a raft of cheap or free accessible courts in this area and all across Scotland.
‘The Davis Cup is an amazing resource so, if you take one resource away, then you have to be more resourceful. There are other areas we can look at in the future, maybe an ATP event, a women’s event, something.
‘But this has been an amazing thing to do, because fans can associate with a team event.’
One last time, then. Raise your voices. Make the best home advantage in the game count.