Wednesday, 4 July, 2007
Jamie Murray and Jelena Jankovic surprised themselves by winning their opening match against the British pairing of Richard Bloomfield and Sarah Borwell 3-6, 7-6, 6-4, and were then equally amazed at the demand for a post-match press conference. “A press interview for Mixed Doubles? Weird or what!” the world number three, Jankovic said as she came into the room where she was joined by Murray. Obviously, as an out-of-towner, she may not be fully aware of how much interest there is in these Murray boys round these parts. The partnership is obviously fun, as both players laughed and giggled their way through the press conference, much as they had done during the match. “We had a lot of fun – it’s very rare for me to play Mixed Doubles,” Jankovic went on to add. There was a bit of confusion when asked to reveal who had suggested the partnership, but eventually Murray admitted he had made the first move. Getting to know each was restricted to one early morning hit at Queen’s on the morning of the day as Murray also went to on admit he had never played Mixed Doubles before. “But it's nice,” he went on. “It’s great fun.” The pair got off to a good start breaking the Borwell serve in the third game to take a 2-1 lead, but Murray dropped his serve in the sixth game to level the set at 3-3. Jankovic was then unable to hold off two break points on her serve with Borwell executing a superb cross court winner to gain the advantage. Bloomfield didn’t hang around and with three set points he hit a powerful serve that Murray could only net, and the British pair were a set up. The second set went to a tie-break and a stunning shot by Jankovic down the tramlines helped her and Murray on their way towards levelling the match. By now the momentum was with the Scotsman and the Serb and after earning two breaks in the deciding set, they served out to take the match 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2. There was a worry as to whether the pair would actually appear on court following Jankovic’s defeat in her previous day’s singles, as Murray confirmed: “I didn’t know if she was going to stick around” but then, while the partnership might be young, it is obviously one that could blossom. Remembering that the Murray and Butorac partnership are individually and respectively nicknamed ‘Stretch’ and ‘Booty’, the burning question which now arises with regard to this new relationship is whether the two will follow that practise. They haven’t put forward any suggestions but the general consensus of those attending the press interview would be ‘Stretch’ and ‘Beauty’. Written by Henry Wancke and Tim Westmacott
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