FOR the first year since 2015, the name Murray will not be inscribed anywhere on the Wimbledon roll of honour. That is because Jamie Murray’s bid to land the mixed doubles title here with a third different partner ended in failure when the Scot and his Belarusian partner Viktoria Azarenka were outgunned 7-6 (1), 6-3 in their Centre Court final by No 11 seeds Alexander Peya of Austria and Nicole Melichar of the USA.
The Scot, a winner of this title previously with Jelena Jankovic back in 2007 and Martina Hingis last year - was ultimately unable to complete the hat-trick. But typically he was prepared to shoulder the blame for his part in the performance, which included a double fault when serving on set point which handed the opposition the first set, and having his service broken for a 0-2 lead at the start of that second set.
“Obviously I lost my serve at the start of things and that didn’t really help,” said the Scot, part of a team which has acquired the hashtag #Muzzarenka. “And I didn’t really return well enough, to be honest. I didn’t really give Vika any chances to put pressure on them. Didn’t feel like I really served that good either, to be honest. So I was disappointed at my performance. I started to kind of get it together a bit with the second set on the returning side of things. But they played well. Very solid. Alex played a lot of good stuff up at the net. Made the spaces very small to hit into. And the other girl, I thought played really well, too.”
Not that the pairing had anything to reproach themselves for, especially as they were thrown together at the 11th hour and still managed to close the tournament on finals day on Centre Court. The 32-year-old, who has been nursing a right knee problem for most of the year, resisted the idea that his decision to enter this competition with Azarenka late on had compromised his hopes of a maiden men’s doubles win at this venue with Bruno Soares.
“For me, it was awesome,” said Jamie. “I had a great time. She’s a great player. I mean, obviously we lost today, which is disappointing when you worked so hard to get to the final. But over the course of the two weeks, we put a lot of good tennis out there, fought hard through difficult moments. I mean, overall I’ve got to be pleased with how it went. It’s not easy to get to Grand Slam finals.
“In the match we lost in the men’s, we had our chances to be up two sets to love, to be in control of the match. We let that slip. Ended up being a dogfight. We lost. But, you know, I don’t think that was because I played extra matches or anything like that. The knee injury is what it is. I just need to try to get it stronger. I’ve been a lot happier with it than in the earlier parts of the year.”
Both parties had their sights set on the hard courts of the USA now, with Jamie joining Andy on the bill at Washington before Toronto, Cincinnati and the US Open, and Azarenka heading off to play in San Jose and Montreal before Flushing Meadows. While both were keeping their options about continue to play together at the Grand Slams, the partnership certainly had potential. Title or no title yesterday, Jamie hopes the matches here could provide a springboard for his partner, a former World No 1, to rediscover her best form as a singles exponent.
“Look, we stepped on the court to win, do our best, see where we got,” said Jamie. “We got all the way to the final. Like I said, we had a lot of fun along the way. Maybe we’ll play again in the future.
“But, you know, I hope for Vika that she kind of gets her form back in singles and gets a good run of clear fitness and everything like that, just can get back to playing the biggest tournaments in the world in the latter stages, because that’s what she’s used to doing.
“She’s obviously had difficult moments the last few years with lots of different things. I think her game is there. I hope she has a good run in the summer, gets back on the top of the game again.”
“I definitely think these matches will help me,” was Azarenka’s take on things. “I think it was important for me to play and be in those situations where the momentum changes a lot of times, try to figure out the way. It was definitely a positive. I’m happy we went so far and I am trying to just build up from these matches.”
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