CTC Short: British Doubles Pioneer – Celebrating Jamie Murray’s Legacy

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Episode 279: Jamie Murray Short

Dan Kiernan (00:01)

Welcome to episode 279 of Control the Controllables and we're bringing a CTC short to you today to mark the retirement of a British tennis legend, Jamie Murray. What a career he had. He came out this week, he let us know that enough was enough.  I think those on the inside of the game maybe saw this coming, we haven't seen him on the court in 2026. 

 

It’s a career that goes over 20 years. He's seven time Grand Slam Winner, 39 titles, world number one, you know, and someone that really did put British Doubles on the map. You know, we've seen the incredible success over the last few years with the British doubles players on the male side. But really, Jamie was the first one that came through. He was the one.

 

that was responsible alongside his mom, Judy, at bringing Louis Cayer into the fold, who has obviously been then the person that has ignited this just incredible, incredible run. Now we've been going through our archives and it was back in 2020 that we had Jamie on the podcast. I think he was our episode number 13. And he also came on, he spoke to us instagram live during the COVID period. He's always been fantastic at giving his time…

 

to Control the Controllables, but also to SotoTennis Academy, know, Davis Cup, I remember our kids seeing Jamie and him giving his time and photos and all of those precious moments that then inspire the next generation. And he's gonna leave a legacy, he really is already going into lots of other things within the game. But we just wanted to share this little short clip about 13, 14 minutes, where he talks about his Wimbledon title when he was age 21. He talks about what it felt like to become world number one and also becoming Jamie Murray, not just Andy Murray's brother.

 

Dan Kiernan (02:09)

 

Not even going to get you to pick one experience because you've had some amazing experiences. I definitely would love to hear about Wimbledon, know, I think, you know, winning Wimbledon, you know, how was that? Because that was, that kind of came out the blue, mixed doubles and Wimbledon a little bit, didn't it?

 

Jamie Murray (02:27)

Yeah, well, totally. was, I was 20, 21. Wow. I was 21 and I was probably, I mean, was probably about 30 in the world, like 25, 30 in the world. So like I was, I was on the up with my doubles career, but I mean, I'd never played singles. It was my second year playing at Wimbledon. Played the year before Colin Fleming. We got a wild card in, I think we were…

 

ranked 150 or something, got a wild card in and we lost in the first round. So that was my only ever experience of playing at Wimbledon. But fast forward a year, I'd won three tour events by that stage with Eric Butorac and I think we lost in the third round to DeLui and Wisner, which was actually on like the second Friday of the tournament, we were in the third round because it rained basically for a week in the middle of the tournament...

 

and they were so far behind. yeah, I mean, basically we we signed in, like, yeah, we signed in and then we were just playing and we basically, I think we played like five matches the last three days of the tournament, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I think we played two or three times on centre court and was in the Royal Box on Sunday evening with a trophy above my head. It was like, wow, okay, this is a cool experience. 

 

Get used to that. It was not something I ever expected or anything. I mean, I was sleeping on Jimmy's, I got his couch. Yeah, mean on his sofa bed, the car to win with it and by the set the court, come back, sleep on the couch.

 

Dan Kiernan (03:56)

Look it’s amazing, nowadays it's amazing and we actually, I spoke to Jonny Marray and Freddie Nielsen, it was the first podcast we did and obviously they spoke about their run in 2012 which was just, which was incredible and then we also spoke to Evan Hoyt who's at the Academy and Eden Silva who almost had a run this year, mean that was an out-run. But five-two up in both sets in the quarters to Dodig and Chan who won the event quite comfortably and they were…

 

Jamie Murray (04:34)

Where do they get their quarters?

 

Dan Kiernan (04:42)

It was the common thing that seems to be with all of those stories and same with you playing with Jankevich, the lack of expectation at first and just enjoying the ride, just enjoying the experience, enjoying the ride, know, and just day after day and like you say, all of a sudden you're holding the trophy in the box. I think sometimes the later people go on in the careers and the more that those things happen, the more it's expected, it's maybe harder to quite have that same kind of carefree attitude.

 

Jamie Murray (05:13)

Yeah, definitely. mean, that's because again, because expectation, isn't it? like for me then, I mean, I had no expectation of myself. I was just out there playing. Whereas now if I go back to play, like, I know that I can win that tournament and I know, you know, I've got a good partner. You know, me, myself, I'm a top player in the world. My partner is as well. you know, like there's, yeah. And then also you're aware that people coming out to watch you, like they

 

they expect to see you win because you're top British player playing at Wimbledon and they're there to support you and you know they're excited about that and you know they're not going there thinking we're gonna watch him he's gonna lose whatever it's like they're…

coming out to support because they want to see you win so all that adds up to it but I think I mean I don't really personally I don't really think about it that much like the outside stuff I mean I have obviously my own expectations which comes with it…

 

own performance pressures but that's just in a way it's a good thing to have that because if you're just turning up just to play just to be a part of it like can't really expect great things I mean you get one-off results here and there but I think over the course of you know career and stuff you have to have have expectations of yourself and yeah.

 

Dan Kiernan (06:37)

Absolutely.

 

And I think that's the thing that amazed me so much when I did with Jonny and Freddie because I'm such good friends with them and I was there pretty much every match that year. It was the fact that it never quite caught up to them because it normally does, you know, you have the, then you get maybe quarters, maybe semis, and you get caught out with the expectation, but they almost just to ride the wave throughout the tournament was incredible.

 

Jamie Murray (07:02)

I think with doubles as you can get on a roll as well. Also in that format, you're playing so much more. It's not so short and sharp like the regular tour. So you're serving a lot more, you're returning a lot more. Score pressure is not the same either. it's kind of, I think mentally it's easier to…

 

because you know you've got time to get into the match. You've got time to potentially come back from the match if you're down. And I think, I'm sure they felt the same thing. I'm sure a lot of doubles players, once you start getting into the tournament, it's like confidence builds from match to match. people are more stressed about the first round than they are about semis or perhaps even the final because…

 

by that stage, you've played five or six matches, you might have played like 15 sets. Like, winning most of them, you know you're playing well or you're feeling good. And it's just a case of like, okay, I go out and do it again. Whereas first round, like everyone's a bit edgy, anxious. No one wants to go out in the first round. You don't know how you play, not quite sure the conditions, blah, blah. But once you play that first match, I feel like it's a lot easier to, you're in the tournament then.

 

Absolutely. You kind of relax a bit.

 

Dan Kiernan (08:30)

I feel it with the juniors I coach all the time or the players I coach. It's the same, I think it's the same at all levels. It is, nobody wants to be going out first round. But you're now, now what I want to talk about is being world number one. How was that feeling?

 

Jamie Murray (08:49)

Well, was, I mean, obviously it was, I mean, it was super cool to, to, you know, look at the rankings on Monday morning in April, whenever it was and, see your name on the, you know, with a big one next to it, which was, which was really cool. I mean, it was weird in the way that we did it because we lost in the first round of Miami in a tie break, kind of like let the match…

 

get away from us. And I remember that night I was like, know, shit, might never get the chance to, to be world number one again. That might be the closest I ever get to it. And then got in the car the next day and was driving to Sarasota, about three, four hour drive with my wife to see some of her family that were up there. then I wasn't really paying attention, even quite no sort of the permutations of the tournament, but…

 

my phone started going crazy and people were like, you you're going to be number one, Mel was just lost. then, yeah, then it was like, wow, okay, this is, this is happening, you know, and it was, yeah, it was cool. I mean, it was a weird way to kind of, to kind of get it, but you know, it doesn't really matter because it's based on 52 weeks rather than, you know, one day's, one day's results.

 

Dan Kiernan (10:13)

And absolutely. And I think I touched on it earlier. My own personal experience of being number one in Britain, certainly not number one in the world. There was maybe in my head because I'd set that as a barrier, but you, the barrier in your head being world number one, there's no, nobody's putting the barrier there. You are, where do you go? Exactly. So, you know, so how, how was that even, even maybe subconsciously do you think?

 

Jamie Murray (10:35)

I only got that in as a show.

 

Dan Kiernan (10:43)

It was then harder to keep motivating or you know I always find it amazing that guys stay there for so long as well because it's fun.

 

Jamie Murray (10:51)

I definitely didn't find it difficult to find motivation because ultimately for me, I wanted to be at the top for as long as I can. Not necessarily as number one, but certainly playing at the top of the game and competing for those titles for as long as I can. And also, in a way, you want to feel like you just...

 

you earned it and you justify it from, know, to be number one for as long as possible.  And so even like, you know, I turn up at the tournaments and kind of feel a bit awkward, like, you know, you didn't maybe quite know how to sort of act a bit. Know, it's not like, it's not like you've got number one tattooed on your forehead or anything, or your running around telling people that but obviously when people you know when people look at you other players and stuff. 

 

They're thinking he's, he's number one whatever and it's like, okay, you know, do they think fucking, he should be number one deserves me number one is he really the best like that sort of stuff? Like, you know, I felt that I don't know if everyone does but kind of motivated me to try to stay there as long as I could I mean. I think I did like six weeks or something and then it…

 

But I had opportunities the rest of that year to get back to number one, like one off matches where if I won, I would have got back there and I lost like two or three times. Then actually, and Bruno had a chance in Shanghai if we won a match against Piers and Constantin, he would have got to number one and I would have been two, but we lost that. Then he never got there in the end. And I always feel bad about that because like…

 

that day, like I didn't really play a particularly great match. Not because I was thinking that, you know, if he wins he gets number one, but just the fact that obviously he was playing with me, like him and Piers got me to number one and I wasn't able to kind of do the same for him because he did, to be honest, like he deserved to be number one more than probably most players around that time because he'd been in like the top five or six for…

 

for quite a long time and had been like really consistent on the tour but just had never got to one because when he was doing it, the Brian's were just better than everybody else. Amazing.

 

Dan Kiernan (13:27)

Amazing.

 

To move gears a little bit, would almost, I want to go into some quick fire questions in a minute, but the one thing I do want to ask you and you, one thing that again I think is amazing what you've done in your career is you've created Jamie Murray rather than just being Andy's brother. I would imagine for a few years it probably was a little bit that you were Andy's brother, you know. And that. What were the pros and the cons of that?

 

Jamie Murray (14:01)

I don't pros necessarily. I for me it was just like, I mean, I understood it and know, everyone, know, loads of people, they'd go to talk to you so they could talk about Andy, whether that was, you know, journalists or fans or people within, you know, tennis family or community, let's say. You know, they'd always come up to talk to you and you know, how's Andy, what's he doing, blah, blah…

 

Okay, whatever. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I never got like, never like truly bothered me, but obviously sometimes just like, you know, whatever. Yeah. But of course that started to change as probably like 2013 onwards. I mean, let's say, let's say 15 onwards especially. Yeah. When then I really was like playing at the top and, know, was, was top 10 all those years and, you know, winning Grand Slams or finals or whatever and Davis Cup was going on and stuff like that. So, and obviously get to number one. Like, so then, like I could feel the shift. 

 

Dan Kiernan (15:11)

There we have it. I know how you feel, Jamie. You know, we ever since we had Andy Murray on the podcast, this is now just known as the podcast that Andy Murray came on to. You know, it's a hardship when you're living in the shadows of such a great. But I think that's quite a nice fitting end to Jamie talking about his career, becoming his own person back in 2015…

 

you know, winning those titles, becoming world number one. And has then gone on to continue doing that. Obviously the Davis Cup as well with his brother. What special moments that family have to look back on and anyone that does follow tennis on the TV, you will see that Jamie's already making a seamless move into television broadcasting, into commentating. I think you're going to see a lot of him on the screens. He's very comfortable. He a great job of that.

 

We've also seen him as the director at Queen's Club, you know, and over the last couple of years as well. And there's no doubt he'll have plenty opportunities coming his way. A big, big well done, Jamie, on behalf of myself and all of Control the Controllables on a quite special, special career. I know personally, we've had a few battles on the court many, years ago and...

 

As good as you were in lots of ways, I would have never quite predicted Seven Grand Slams, world number one, and to have a career that has spanned 20 plus years. That deserves an absolute tip of the hat. Enjoy your retirement. All the best with the next part of your journey. But until next I'm Dan Kiernan and we are Control the Controllables.