Britain's Jamie Murray is to end his doubles partnership with American Eric Butorac after the US Open. The pair are ranked 13th in the ATP doubles race, which covers performances in the calendar year.
"Booty and Stretch will be no more after the US Open. We will be heading our separate ways," said a statement on their website.
8/1 - Another loss for us this week against Moodie-Perry. Also sorry to announce that Booty and Stretch will be no more after the US Open. We will be heading our separate ways. Thanks for all the support and hopefully we can make it work for one last tourney!
Makes sense: much as it grieves me to say it, after yesterday's collapse against Isner, it now looks very much as though Tim's at the end of a long & distinguished road as a singles player, but if he wants to stay in the game a while longer, doubles would be the ideal way to prolong his career for a couple or three more years. He's a more than competent doubles player & I imagine they'd make a pretty formidable leftie/right-hander partnership - if they clicked... One way to put it to the test, with Jet Ski now retired, would be for Legs to select them them as the doubles team for the DC tie against Croatia...
Sad to see them split up, but things haven't been working for them recently, but this does appear to be a kneejerk reaction to a couple of close losses against quality doubles teams
Lipsky/Martin and Moodie/Perry are both probably amongst the top 15 doubles teams in the world, and with a bit more lcuk they would have beaten them, so it cannot be because of the ability they have.
There has to be something more to this that hasn't been revealed, as the split doesn't make sense otherwise
As for his new partner???
Hutchins is ranked far too low for it to be worthwhile teaming up on a regular basis, as they won't ever be seeded, and will miss a lot of cuts.
Henman doesn't play enough tournaments really, and his ranking is slipping as well, so again they won't be seeded (although it could be worth a look in a couple tournaments for Davis Cup reasons)
Playing a bit with Andy Murray could be an option, as they want to win the Olympics next year, so could do with playing together on a more regular basis than they do at the moment.
Auckland is always a possibility, especially as he and Huss haven't been playing well together recently, but 1 of them would have to change sides, and that is never ideal
Knowles becomes available after the US Open, so that could be a good little short-term partnership, but don't see it lasting more than a year, if that.