Jamie delivers some cheer with doubles success
Jamie Murray brought some much-needed cheer to his family by winning his 23rd career doubles title at the Sydney International with Bruno Soares.
A day after brother Andy announced his intention to retire sooner rather than later, Jamie and Brazilian Soares defeated top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 6-4 6-3.
Murray and Soares won their first Grand Slam title together at the Australian Open in 2016 and will head to Melbourne with high hopes of another deep run.
“It was a great week for us,” said Murray. “It’s the perfect preparation to win a tournament going into the Australian Open.
“We played a lot of good tennis this week and beat a lot of good teams.”
Meanwhile, Cameron Norrie was beaten by Tennys Sandgren in his first ATP Tour final at the ASB Classic in Auckland.
The 23- year- old had hoped to win his maiden title in the city where he grew up but American Sandgren was too strong, winning 6-4 6-2 after an hour and 18 minutes.
Norrie said: “I think he was solid throughout. He was not making many errors and I think I over-pressed it a little bit. He was moving unbelievably this week, and today.
“He served great. I actually think I played better in the second set. Too good from him today, and I’m happy for him.”
This week has nevertheless been a confidence-booster for Norrie going into the Australian Open, where he will play Taylor Fritz in tomorrow’s first round.
The eight British singles representatives, on the whole, have not been blessed with favourable draws and the prospects for any of them going beyond the first week look challenging.
The good news for Kyle Edmund and Johanna Konta, who should be Britain’s two best hopes given Sir Andy Murray’s struggles, is that they both look to have overcome early-season injury niggles.
Edmund, back at the scene of last year’s semi- final run, suffered a shock loss to Yasutaka Uchiyama in Brisbane last week before pulling out of the tournament in Sydney with a knee problem.
“It’s a lot better than it was,” said the world No. 14, who takes on Tomas Berdych in the first round.“i’ve been practising pretty much like my normal schedule. I’ll be fine to play. I’ve been playing a lot of hours the last week.”
Konta, who faces a rematch against her Brisbane conqueror Ajla Tomljanovic, was also forced out of Sydney after locking up her neck.
She said: “I was warming up and my neck just kind of seized up – I couldn’t turn left and I couldn’t look up so that made it particularly difficult to hit normal strokes and also serve. It was just a bit of a random thing and unfortunate, but I can look up now.”
Edmund, Murray, Norrie, Katie Boulter, Heather Watson, Dan Evans and Harriet Dart all play tomorrow, with Konta beginning her campaign on Tuesday.