There were tears from Andy Murray, a standing ovation from the Centre Court crowd and a video tribute replete with messages from Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Venus Williams as Murray lost alongside his brother on Thursday, all part of the first stop on the two-time Wimbledon singles champion’s farewell tour at the tournament.
The Murrays lost 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 in the first round of the men’s doubles against Rinky Hijikata and John Peers.
“The match itself, it was tough, physically. It was hard for me... I was fortunate I was even able to get on the court to play,” said Andy Murray, who had surgery to remove a cyst from his spine less than two weeks ago, forcing him to withdraw from the men’s singles.
Photo: Reuters
“It was pretty emotional,” he said about the post-match tribute. “Watching the video was nice, but hard as well, for me. Because you know it’s coming to the end of something that you absolutely loved doing for such a long time. So that was difficult.”
It was the first time that a men’s doubles first-round match was played in the event’s main stadium in nearly 30 years, a fitting way for him to begin to say goodbye — and for his many fans to offer their thanks and well wishes, too.
Murray, a 37-year-old from Scotland, has said he is to retire after playing at the All England Club, where he is also entered in the mixed doubles with 2021 US Open winner Emma Raducanu, and the Paris Olympics, which begin later this month.
Photo: Reuters
“I’m ready to finish playing, because I can’t play to the level I want to anymore,” he said.
Andy Murray occasionally fidgeted with his back and looked a tad uncomfortable while playing, but he also let out a celebratory scream after hitting a forehand return winner to go up a break at 2-0 in the second set, the type of shot that helped him reach No. 1 in the rankings.
This was the first time that the Murray siblings had played together at the All England Club. They bumped fists before the match began; they slapped palms between points. Their mother, Judy, who taught both boys tennis, was in a guest box, sitting with Andy Murray’s wife, Kim, and two of the couple’s four children.
Photo: AFP
“It was a fun experience for me to be out there and play with him,” Jamie Murray said. “It was sort of strange knowing what the background was.”
Jamie Murray’s younger brother became a superstar by winning Wimbledon in 2013, making him the first British man to triumph in the singles at the All England Club in 77 years. He won the title again in 2016.
His other Grand Slam trophy came at the US Open in 2012, the same year he won his first singles gold medal at the London Olympics at Centre Court and the next, in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, made him the only player with two in a row.
There were some of his usual mannerisms, whether it was tugging on the brim of his white hat or leaning over to pull on the tongues of his shoes or clenching a fist while looking up at the stands. There was not as much of the fire and brimstone he was famous for, the cursing and muttering directed at his team or, just as frequently, himself.
“Sometimes it looked like you against the world,” Djokovic said during the four-minute video.
Then it was Federer’s turn to say: “But you were never alone. Because while you carried your own dreams, you also carried theirs,” referring to Murray’s many fans.
In other results on Thursday, Djokovic, Alex de Minaur, Arthur Fils, Francisco Comesana, Ben Shelton, Grigor Dimitrov, Denis Shapovalov, Roman Safiullin, Alexei Popyrin, Lorenzo Musetti, Alejandro Tabilo, Holger Rune, Taylor Fritz, Lucas Pouille, Quentin Halys, Cameron Norrie, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, Emil Ruusuvuori and Alexander Zverev won their second-round matches in the men’s singles.
In the women’s singles, Daria Kasatkina, Madison Keys, Paula Badosa, Yulia Putintseva, Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, Barbora Krejcikova, Beatriz Haddad Maia, Marta Kostyuk, Wang Xinyu, Anna Kalinskaya, Harriet Dart, Jelena Ostapenko, Ons Jabeur, Danielle Collins, Elina Svitolina, Bernarda Pera, Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina, Liudmila Samsonova and Caroline Wozniacki advanced to the third round.
Three Taiwanese played in the first round of the women’s doubles: Hsieh Su-wei, Chan Hao-ching and Wu Fang-hsien.
Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens defeated British duo Alicia Barnett and Freya Christie 6-0, 6-3 to set up a second-round match against another British pair, Yuriko Miyazaki and Emily Appleton.
Chan and Veronika Kudermetova of Russia defeated US pair Sloane Stephens and Ashlyn Krueger 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.
Wu and partner Makoto Ninomiya of Japan were beaten 6-3, 6-2 by Alycia Parks and Hailey Baptiste of the US.
In the second round of the mixed doubles, Chan and Croatia’s Ivan Dodig were to play Marcus Willis and Alicia Barnett of Britain after press time last night, while Hsieh and Jan Zielinski of Poland were to play Monaco’s Hugo Nys and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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