You should be so lucky ...

Though it sounds as though we may have to censor it. . .

Andy Murray, Jamie Murray, Jamie Baker and Alex Bogdanovic

No surprise there....do we read into that Baker is ahead of Boggo in the team announcement.....perhaps ?

btw hutch is the 5th

steven wrote:

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Leaving out Aucks even though he's higher-ranked, now there's a surprise. (not)

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Didn't want to upset the Argies too much, so mustn't include any English!

Yep. Born in Wimbledon, which I seem to have heard of somewhere before. . .

Jamie Murray needs kick-start for Buenos Aires



Neil Harman, Tennis Correspondent, Melbourne

Pounding back and forth across the 20 yards of scarred grass that separates Court 8 from 13 at Melbourne Park, one could trace the Australian Open subplot as it portends a tennis match that starts three weeks from today and is underscored in the diary of anyone who has a vested interest in the sport in either Britain or Argentina. To a spot of doubles on No 8 and a first-round match between Jamie Murray and Max Mirnyi, the No 12 seeds from Britain and Belarus, and two Frenchmen, Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Gilles Simon, reckoned to be agneaux to the slaughter, especially as Simon had an appointment on the Rod Laver Arena in the third round of the singles against Rafael Nadal, the world No 2, last night in the back of his mind and he and Roger-Vasselin were a virgin combination.

Much to the chagrin of the British support group - and it was large in number, including little brother Andy for the final set - Murray and Mirnyi were soundly beaten 7-6, 1-6, 6-3 and Mirnyi's thunderous face - though he was the team's weak link - as he marched back to the locker-rooms suggested that he was about to live up to his nickname as the Beast of Belarus. Rather worryingly, since his split with Eric Butorac, the American, after the US Open last September, Jamie Murray has won three matches from 11, not exactly a jaw-dropping success rate. How long Mirnyi will tolerate not being on the winning side is anyone's guess.

John Lloyd, the Great Britain Davis Cup captain, named Ross Hutchins yesterday as the fifth member of the team to travel to Argentina in the World Group first-round tie from February 8 to 10. Hutchins, who has never figured in the competition, is the 22-year-old son of Paul Hutchins, the LTA's head of men's tennis. Hutchins played in one doubles match with Andy Murray in Doha two weeks ago, in which they won three games, and flew on to Melbourne to discover that he and Victor Hanescu, his prospective partner from Romania, were two places outside a slot in the main draw. The consolation - if one can describe it as such - is nomination in the team to travel into the Buenos Aires bearpit.

Over on Court No 13, there was a flavour of the Davis Cup in the day's most enthralling match between Juan Monaco, of Argentina, and Amir Delic, once of Bosnia and now a citizen of the United States, which Monaco, straining every sinew, won 6-3, 7-6, 5-7, 6-7, 8-6 in four hours and ten minutes. Monaco has not played in the Davis Cup, but his record on red clay last year was exemplary, three tournament victories helping his end-of-year ranking up to No 23, suggesting that he must come into the selection picture. "The captain [Alberto Mancini] will decide, but I feel like, if I am called, I will be in the best possible shape to play. I am thankful that Mancini watched my match today, it is good to have him there. It fills me with confidence."

Monaco did not only have to contend with Delic, another of the bicep-bulging players overrunning the men's game, but a group of Bosnians who, if they never overstepped the mark of gamesmanship, consistently let Monaco know that they were there. It got to the stage where, whenever he played a winning shot, Delic would raise his racket and shake it in their direction, which got them even more wound up. To his great credit, Monaco, 23, kept his concentration.

Back at base-camp, Jamie Murray was dissecting his loss, saying that he and Mirnyi would just have to "keep working away". Getting into the swing of a doubles pairing takes time, but Murray has the ability to disarm; he never seems to be worried by anything. That smile could come in very useful in Argentina, especially, as he said, tongue in cheek, one suspected, "if we're winning".

* My italics

**  Interesting snippet of information about Hutch.  I'd still love to know why Legs selected him over Aucks...!

***  Another interesting fact:  Mirnyi & his Belorussian compatriot, Victoria Azarenka, also lost to Meilen Tu & Marcin Matkowski (unseeded, like them) in three sets.  It would appear that Max is not at his best at the moment...