Tennis
Andy Murray considers surprise Wimbledon move after French Open exit
Andy Murray is gearing up for what is expected to be his final appearance at Wimbledon – and the 37-year-old Scot wants to play doubles with his older brother Jamie
Andy Murray is considering playing doubles with his brother Jamie at what is likely to be his farewell to Wimbledon this summer.
Murray paired up with Dan Evans at the French Open, but suffered a first-round exit at the hands of Thiago Seyboth Wild and Sebastian Baez, who won two tie-breaks to take the match 7-6 (6) 7-6 (3). The doubles defeat followed another in straight sets against Stan Wawrinka in the first round of the singles.
The 37-year-old has been playing at Roland Garros after recovering ahead of schedule from damaged ankle ligaments and is still trying to find his best tennis. He is gearing up for what is expected to be his final shot at Wimbledon next month before a potential retirement after the Olympic Games in Paris.
Murray won the Davis Cup alongside his elder sibling and has revealed that they are considering a reunion for Wimbledon, which starts on July 1 in SW19. “I may do, yeah. I’m not 100 per cent sure yet,” he said.
“My brother doesn’t have a partner for Wimbledon currently. We have spoken a little bit about it. So [I] may do that, but I’m not 100 per cent sure yet. I mean obviously Jamie could also get a good partner, as well. We’ll see what happens, but yeah, we’ll probably decide in the next few days, probably.”
The three-time Grand Slam champion was disappointed with how things went with Evans, especially considering the tennis at the Olympics will be played at the same venue later this summer. “I guess for both of us it was kind of an opportunity to put our names in the frame to play the Olympics,” he said.
“Me and Dan obviously were hoping to have a good run here. But it wasn’t to be. So I don’t know if we’ll get the opportunity. There’s guys obviously ahead of us in the rankings, and we’ve got good doubles players in the UK. Let’s see what happens.
“It was an opportunity to have a good run and didn’t happen. I don’t regret it. Obviously when you lose, if you could have said, ‘OK, you’re going to lose in the first round’ four days ago, yeah, you would regret sticking around.
“I felt like we had a good chance to do well and we agreed if we were going to play, we would play to try and win the tournament. So no I don’t regret playing at all.
“I have been struggling a little bit with my back the last couple of weeks, so I probably needed a few lighter days anyway. Yeah, I’ll get a chance to get home, start preparing on the grass and hopefully get a few good tournaments there.”