After Cincinnati, Murray said he may play in New Haven, perhaps with his brother, Andy, who returns here today against Robby Ginepri, of the United States, after 12 weeks out with a wrist injury, or even as a partner to Tim Henman, the British No 2, with an eye towards next months Davis Cup play-off tie against Croatia at Wimbledon.
Its quite a good time as its kind of the end of the year, he said. If guys are looking for new partners, then theres a few tournaments to try things out, so Ill do that with some guys and hopefully Ill find one that wants to play with me next year.
Butorac has expressed his surprise at Murrays decision to pull the trigger on their Booty and Stretch partnership and said that he would have liked to carry on.
Jamie said that hes had two offers to play with some better players, Butorac, 25, said. He said he had somebody in the top ten that he wanted to play with, which I guess is a reasonable request. I dont know who that is, but I was a little surprised that he wanted to split up.
I would have liked to stick it out a little longer, just because I know that we can play well together. But if hes not feeling confident with me on the court and feels he would play better with someone else, then theres no reason why he shouldnt try that.
The pair, who have won three titles together this year, will play at Flushing Meadows before going their separate ways, but Butorac has not given up hope of a reunion. We might realise that what we had together was better than anything else, he said.
Full story at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article2211091.ece
The rumour mill is spinning pretty quickly of who Jamie might play doubles with, I have heard Bjorkman, Paes, Santoro & Zimonic as potential partners but the ones that I think may be more realistic are that of either Mark Knowles or Daniel Nestor, as a pair they were due to split after the French Open but won it, then they had a good Wimbledon & agreed to play through to the US Open but are splitting after that, both are in the top 5. What also makes this interesting is that Jamie's coach Louie Cayer coached both Knowles & Nestor, so would be an influence in any deals being made. One thing is for sure Jamie is a potential top 5 doubles player & multi grand slam winner, so expect him to link up with one of the worlds best.
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Its Not Who You Know But What You Know.........Or Is It???
And here's Jamie's view of the split. London is awash with "free sheets". Not only does it have three freebie general newspapers (one in the morning & two in the evening) & a freebie sports weekly in London, it also has a morning business freebie, in the City at least: City A.M.. I always take a copy, as I work in the City, but more often than not, I forget to flick through it. Not today, however, & I'm glad I didn't, because to my great surprise, I stumbled across this little gem in the sports section at the back:
I guess I have to call her and ask her to play first
Jamie Murray tells Jon Couch why he can't wait to get back on court with Jelena Jankovic
Jamie Murray admits he will need to turn on the charm this week if he is to continue his Grand Slam-winning run. The 23[sic]-year-old Scot is hoping to persuade Serbian ace, Jelena Jankovic, to partner him again in this month's US Open mixed doubles to follow up their Wimbledon success this summer. First, though, the Scot must phone and ask the world-ranked No 3 to partner him and admits he may need to sweet-talk her, having left it a bit late.
"I guess I have to ask her to play first, but I need to do it soon," said Murray. "We've spoken to each other a little bit since Wimbledon, but we haven't spoken about the US Open as yet. I'll have to do that this week."
Main thing
Murray and Jankovic became the darlings of SW19 last month after their on-court bond and refreshing joviality took them all the way to the mixed doubles title amid rumours they were more than just on-court partners. That was denied, but the closeness between the two was evident when a 6-3 3-6 6-1 final victory over Jonas Björkman and Alicia Molik saw them take the title and gave Murray the distinction of being the first British winner of a senior Wimbledon title for 20 years.
Murray now has his sights set on further doubles success and seems ready to abandon his singles career. "Doubles is the main thing for me now," said Murray, whose younger brother, Andy, is Britain's No 1. "I've lost my singles ranking and when that happens, it's very hard to get it back; you almost have to start from scratch."
This is a big year for doubles tennis, with the ATP Tour introducing changes in an attempt to broaden its appeal. The new scoring format features no-ad games (sudden death at deuce) and a special tie-break (first to 10 points, win by two) in place of third set. Organisers hope the new format will enable more doubles matches to be played on show courts and attract more singles players.
Ideal platform
Murray is at a crossroads in his game: he has split from his long-term [???] men's doubles partner, American Eric Butorac, and is now looking for a replacement to reach the higher echelons of the world rankings. Flushing Meadows in two weeks' time will be their final tournament together and they will look to go out with a success.
"The US Open is my last event with Eric and we'll be going all out to finish on a high," Murray says. "Eric and I just decided to go our separate ways. There was no animosity whatsoever." While it is uncertain whom he might hook up with in the long term, this week at the Cincinnati Masters Murray is playing with India's Mahesh Bhupathi.
Winning feeling
For now, Murray's best hope of success lies with Jankovic. "The feeling of winning Wimbledon was one that neither I nor Jelena will ever forget," he says. "To have the winning feeling again would be magnificent and it'll be great to team up with Jelena again."
