	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

WIMBLEDON

June 23, 2011

Jamie Murray

LONDON, ENGLAND

MURRAY-STAKHOVSKY/Rice-Thornley
6-3, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What was your verdict on the match?
JAMIE MURRAY: Good. I mean, the important thing was we won. I mean, obviously I guess we were quite big favorites going into the match.
You know, playing against two other British guys was a little bit awkward again, especially if we were sort of supposed to win or whatnot.
But we played good and we did what we had to do. Look forward to the next match.

Q. Your mum was watching. I think she Tweeted that your partner had his chair nicked in the game?
JAMIE MURRAY: No, because his wife was standing behind the entrance to the court behind the umpire's chair, and they wouldn't let her sit down.
And then she did sit down, and someone came and told her to move, that she couldn't sit there. So I said, Look, have my chair hoping that they would then bring another chair for him. But she managed to sit next to my wife so it was okay, but that was why.
And then I clocked him in the ear as a well with a serve, which was a bit random. I had been serving really well the whole match, and then just threw the ball up, took a bit of a gust of wind, and then just tried to fight it and fricking hit him flush in the ear, which wasn't ideal.

Q. Was he...
JAMIE MURRAY: I think he was a bit dazed for a little bit, but he seemed okay, I guess, towards the end of the match.

Q. You can lose your balance a bit, can't you?
JAMIE MURRAY: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I literally nicked him right here. I don't know how fast the serve was, but it was a good -- yeah, I got him pretty good.

Q. Did he thank you for it?
JAMIE MURRAY: Yeah, he was a bit annoyed, as I'm sure I would be. But it's funny, because then like almost sort of put me off a bit, because then when I was serving to that side again, I was like consciously like trying not to go anywhere near him, trying to get it as far away from him as I could but still trying to keep it in the box.

Q. What did he say to you afterwards about that serve?
JAMIE MURRAY: He was like, Shit, it happens.

Q. But don't do it again.
JAMIE MURRAY: Yeah, exactly.
But, no, it was weird, because it came out of nowhere. Like I was serving great and was hitting all my spots. I think I probably had a pretty high percentage of serves.
And then, yeah, ball just got carried away with the wind, and rather than just stopping I tried to fight it and clocked him.
So at least it's a lesson for me, I guess.

Q. Sorry if you were asked this, but what do you think the speed on it was?
JAMIE MURRAY: Like 110 to 15, maybe. Wasn't like the fastest serve I had ever hit, but it was a pretty solid, flat serve.

Q. Did his ear look red the rest of the match?
JAMIE MURRAY: Yeah, it was a bit swollen. The doctor came on and said he probably bruised the cartilage and all that stuff, a bit of a cauliflower ear.

Q. You've obviously got good a good rapport with him and things like that can add to the camaraderie, can't they, in a way?
JAMIE MURRAY: Yeah, but he's a nice guy. He's good fun toe play on the court with. He's very relaxed. He's a bit of a joker.
Yeah, we played last week in Eastbourne and played a good match. Just unfortunate to lose. It was a bit of a -- yeah, we a lot 13-11 to a good French pair.
We played good, and then today we played a solid match as well.

Q. How many times have you played together?
JAMIE MURRAY: That was our second match.

Q. Okay.
JAMIE MURRAY: Yeah. We've known each other a long time. We're the same age. We've played so much juniors and stuff together.

Q. What are your hopes for this tournament target-wise?
JAMIE MURRAY: Just keep winning, I guess. I mean, who knows what can happen? I mean, grass court doubles, I mean, last year we played a great match in the first round and lost to the guys who were the No. 1 seeds.
We played really good. I think Sergiy serves really well and he hits good from the back and he plays great up at the net. If I keep serving well and can get onto my returns a bit, then I think we'll be a pretty tough team to play against.

Q. What do you make of your brother?
JAMIE MURRAY: Yesterday he played fine, not his best match, but he served good when he needed to. Yeah, he's not going to win the tournament in the second round or whatever.
Yeah, I guess he'll have some things he'll want to improve on, but overall it was a pretty solid match, I thought.

Q. At the moment, where are you? You seem in quite a good place again maybe compared to a couple years ago.
JAMIE MURRAY: Yeah, well, I mean, I did really well at the end of last year and got my ranking -- started the year at sort of 55 or something. Actually won a lot matches this year until the last couple of months.
But certainly I think the first three, four months of the year I was playing really well. You know, just only moved my ranking up like ten spots, and then it's kind of been there for the last couple months. Just the way it sort of goes with how the doubles is set up.
But, yeah, I've been playing good for the most part of the year. I think my level has definitely improved, sort of playing much more consistently, I would've thought.
Yeah, looking forward to this season and then obviously this summer as well.

Q. How low did you get? Was it two years ago that was your toughest spell?
JAMIE MURRAY: Yeah, I guess last year, a lot of last year, yeah, I kind of thought that me and Jonny, we would have probably being able to work our way up better than we did, and then we went a bit stale and started playing with other guys and didn't really work out. I was really struggling on the challenger tour.
You know, I was kind of practicing, practicing, going to tournament, losing, coming home, practicing, practicing, practicing, and it was a bit demotivating.
But then went to Valencia and played great all week with Andy. We beat some good teams, and all of a sudden my ranking was back up at 60. And then I won two other big challengers, and this year I've been able to play the tour again, play all the big tournaments. Played Indian Wells, Miami, and obviously the Grand Slams as well. It's been good fun.
I've won matches at the big tournaments as well, so it's been a lot more enjoyable than sort of the year previous, or the 18 months or so.

Q. Is there a key to going up to the next level, finding a proper permanent partner again, like Butorac, for example?
JAMIE MURRAY: Don't know. I mean, I think for me, the way I saw it this year in terms of trying make the next move up, was that I wasn't going to find a regular partner. Just wasn't going to happen.

Q. Why?
JAMIE MURRAY: Just because, you know, guys want to try to get into the biggest tournaments they can. And, you know, unless your ranking is sort of 20 or 25 and you can play all the tournaments, including the Masters Series and stuff, which anyone ranked 30 or worse can't get into those tournaments. So there are nine more tournaments that those guys can get into, plus some of the 500 tournaments as well, they're so strong.
So, you know, guys are always trying to hustle to get into the tournaments. I mean, the way I saw it was I tried to pick the right partners for me that are going to help me win matches.
And then if I can, you know, play some tournaments with Andy, then we can make sure that I win with him. You know, I played with him in the bigger tournaments where there's lots of points on offer.
We did good at the start of the year. We played three really good matches in Rotterdam; Indian Wells was that crazy match that we lost, and those guys went on and won the tournament. So we played good when we played together. We didn't play so good at Queen's.
But, you know, on the whole, I've played those big tournaments and I've been playing good, so I feel good in my tennis. Just, yeah, keep trying to win the right matches and hopefully get my ranking up to a point that someone will want to sort of make a commitment.

Q. Will he want to play doubles in Davis Cup?
JAMIE MURRAY: Who knows? I guess maybe it depends on what the score would be and I guess maybe how well he's done here.
But if we do get the chance to play it would be pretty cool, because we've been on the team quite a few times before together, but not actually played together. So, yeah, it would be nice if we did, especially being in Scotland.
So. Yeah, kind of look forward to it, I guess.

Q. In terms of finding a regular doubles partner, is it true that more of the guys ranked 30, 40, 50, that they're not doubles specialist, whereas the guys at the at the top are, and so it's difficult to find...
JAMIE MURRAY: Yeah, that's also true. Nowadays a lot more singles guys have got good doubles rankings. So if I'm looking at guys around my ranking, if you look at the guys around my ranking, a lot them are singles players. So, you know, it's tough to sort of make that commitment to them.
I mean, I've obviously been -- I was fortunate to play a few tournaments with Malisse. Would've played two or three more, but he got sick when we were out in the States last year. We're going to play in Atlanta and L.A.
He's a good partner for me. He plays great and he's relaxed. He never misses a return, which is nice to play with. So I'll try play some more tournaments with him when possible, and obviously use Andy when I can at the Masters tournaments that he can help me get into.

Q. That's all you can really expect from Andy given his schedule.
JAMIE MURRAY: Yeah, of course. I mean, he doesn't play as many tournaments like all the rest of those top guys. They play the Masters Series, the Grand Slams, three or four 500s in the year, and maybe a couple other tournaments.
So, yeah. But it's good for me to play in the bigger tournaments. That's what I enjoy doing most. You know, and a chance to do it with your brother as well gives it the edge even more.

Q. Is he your best partner?
JAMIE MURRAY: Yeah, think when he's fired up to play and he's really into it, then, you know, he plays unbelievably well at doubles. Yeah, so if we were to play all the time, I'm sure my ranking would probably be higher.
But, you know, it's never going to be like that. But, you know, I'm fortunate that I do have the chance to use him to play in bigger tournaments that other guys my ranking can't.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297