Jamie Murray is upbeat about the prospect of a maiden men’s doubles title at Wimbledon despite a first-round exit at the LTA cinch Championships at The Queen’s Club.
The Dunblane doubles ace and partner Bruno Soares were narrowly beaten by top seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Sailsbury after falling 7-6 (2) 7-6 (3) in a rematch of last year’s US Open final.
Murray, 36, who alongside Brazilian Soares won the men’s doubles title at The Queen’s Club in 2017, has failed to reach the latter stages in either of the first two Grand Slams of 2022 in Melbourne and Paris.
However, the former Davis Cup champion says the ambition to win a Wimbledon title in the men’s doubles, to complement his two mixed double crowns, helps maintain his desire to continue to play at the top level.
“For me it is the biggest goal I have left,” said Murray. “And I believe I can still win it.
“Until I stop playing or don’t feel I can win it anymore. But I don’t feel like that right now.
“I know we played a good match today, but we’re up against a top team and even though we lost there were some positives in the performance.
“We still have Eastbourne next week to get more time out on the grass. Hopefully we’ll build a bit of momentum heading into Wimbledon.
“I’m really looking forward to playing there in a couple of weeks and giving it my best shot.”
Murray and Soares served well in their first-round tie looked the more likely to break serve in the second set, only for their opponents to control the tiebreak.
Despite the loss, Murray felt positives can be taken from a high-quality encounter.
“It was a tough match,” he said. “It was a close match obviously with two tiebreaks, but we had a load of chances to break serve and just couldn’t do it.
“We didn’t play a great second set tiebreak, but overall we played fine.”
Although his focus for now remains on SW19, Murray is also the Tournament Director of the Battle of the Brits event which takes place in December, after being postponed due to the pandemic last year.
And he believes the clash between teams from Scotland and England will highlight the strength in depth on the British men’s side at the moment, on the back of big wins already this week for Jack Draper and Ryan Peniston at The Queen’s Club.
“It (Battle of the Brits) will be a good showcase of all the best players in British men’s tennis and there is some real talent at the moment,” added Murray.
“Jack (Draper) is obviously doing some really good things on the court. Andy has been around for a long time, Cameron (Norrie) is having a really solid career now.
“Jonny O’Mara is another who is doing well at the moment. We have a lot of players having some real success and that is a good thing for British tennis.”
