| Thursday, 5 June 2008 Written by Chris Bowers British winners at Wimbledon are rare these days which explains why Jamie Murray captured the hearts of his sporting nation with his mixed doubles triumph alongside Jelena Jankovic in the last final of the 2007 Championships. In fact the elder Murray might have made the British sporting headlines the next day if it hadn’t been for one of the best singles finals in recent years between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. After all, with Murray and his partner Jelana Jankovic’s 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 victory over Jonas Björkman and Alicia Molik, he became the first British of a main draw title since Jeremy Bates and Jo Durie won the mixed 20 years earlier. Perhaps the most amusing part of Murray’s victory was that lots of people wanted to know whether he and Jankovic were romantically involved. “Yeah, a lot of people thought we were,” Murray says coyly – but it was purely a professional relationship, with many people reading more into Jankovic’s flirtatious affection for Murray rather than seeing the naturally effusive person she is with most people. “As a Briton, the best thing of all a player can do is win Wimbledon, and I did that, even if it was in the mixed doubles,” says Murray a year on from his triumph. “It came out of the blue to me as much as it did to anyone else. It meant that I’ve been publicly more recognised, and I hope we helped to put doubles on the map for many in Great Britain. Doubles relies a lot on television exposure and promotion, so it was great that so many people watched our final.” For many British tennis watchers, the satisfaction came in seeing the less illustrious of the two Murray brothers make it first onto the Grand Slam roll of honour. Having grown up playing tennis with Andy, it required something of a reframing for Jamie to accept that his kid brother was likely to succeed in a way he wasn’t. That reframing took the form of concentrating on doubles, where the older and less abrasive Murray has been ranked as high as 28. Yet despite saying last year that few would have expected him to reach a major final before Andy, Jamie denies that winning a Grand Slam title ahead of his brother is of any importance to him. “It might have been if we’d been younger, but we’re not competitive with each other the way we were then, and I never once thought that winning the mixed would mean I’d got there before Andy.” With mixed doubles played at only the four major tournaments, Murray and Jankovic haven’t been paired since their triumph at Wimbledon. In the three Slams played since Wimbledon, Jamie has partnered the top-ranked Liezel Huber with some success (semi-final at the US Open, quarter-final at the French), while Jankovic has concentrated on her singles career. Neither player has committed to defending their title at the Championships this year. Murray says only that he hasn’t yet asked Jankovic if she’s up for it, and Jankovic says she doesn’t yet know. With Jankovic coming into Wimbledon with genuine hopes of taking the singles title, she may be less willing to sign up for mixed doubles than she was last year — when she arrived after a wonderful spring but was somewhat fatigued and thus more receptive to the fun of playing the mixed. Both are likely to make a last-minute decision about whether to defend their title. It’s possible that the pleasure derived from their victory, both on a personal level and for so many in a success-starved tennis nation, might encourage them to Murray and Jankovic to enter again. After all, they did promise after last year’s triumph that they would defend their title. So it may take just a few prods for them to realise that it could be another wonderful opportunity for Grand Slam glory.
| 
Subscription Video (Live)
Subscription Video (VOD)
Free Video
