Weeks 21-22 - 2009 French Open (Roland-Garros): men's doubles

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

RE: Weeks 21-22 - 2009 French Open (Roland-Garros): men's doubles

The Hoose · Satellite level

Jamie's never set the world alight on clay so no need to get too upset about this one (I'm trying to keep my frustration in check!). Let's hope the grass season will bring his confidence back.

-- Edited by The Hoose on Thursday 28th of May 2009 10:44:33 AM

The Hoose · Satellite level

Actually, I am a bit annoyed. Am going to RG on Saturday and was hoping to see at least one of the British doubles players in action.

scottie1 · Futures level

I think it shows that jamie murray is a very ordinary player and happened to have good partners to cover up for his poorer standard of play eg Henman/Rusedeski in Davis cup Booty in mens doubles and and Jankovic in Mixed doubles

Seen him in Edinburgh when younger never really rated him!

Smidster · Challenger level

Not the best results.

H&H had a horrible draw against a couple of proficient players on the surface.

Jamie is having a real crisis of confidence and you jsut don't see where the next win is going to come from. Really needs to take some time out and re-assess his game and where he wants to go from here.

steven · Tennis legend

There was an article about Jamie in the Times yesterday at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article6381883.ece

The comments below it are right on the money, I think - the root of the problem was when he split a really good partnership with Booty in order to play with someone more high profile. I wonder how high-ranked 'Booty and Stretch' would be now if he hadn't done that.

I think his best way out of this slump would be to stop trying to find top doubles players to play with and instead find a partner at a similar level to himself after Wimbledon (which effectively means 100-150 level) and of a similar age and then start to gradually work their way up together, much as he was doing with Booty before he split.

Doubles players peak at older ages than singles players, so it's not as if he's running out of time.

The Hoose · Satellite level

scottie1 wrote:

I think it shows that jamie murray is a very ordinary player and happened to have good partners to cover up for his poorer standard of play eg Henman/Rusedeski in Davis cup Booty in mens doubles and and Jankovic in Mixed doubles

Seen him in Edinburgh when younger never really rated him!

Booty's results since the split have hardly been amazing so I don't think that was so much a case of a good partner covering up for him. I think Booty and Stretch were more than the sum of their parts - they had the enthusiasm and teamwork that you need to be a good doubles pair. And that's what Jamie needs again now, as Steven suggests.

Perhaps we were wrong to be too critical of Jamie's poor work ethic - in trying so hard to find a better combination, changing coaches and partners, trying to be more professional, Jamie's effervescence seems to have been sapped out of him. It's sad watching interviews with Jamie now and wondering where the bubbly personality has disappeared to.

The Hoose · Satellite level

I just tried visiting bootyandstretch.com for the nostalgia. Certainly brings back graphic memories of Jamie's playboy lifestyle.......

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

lol thanks for that surprise Hoose!

Star · Newbie

I thought the last paragraph on this was interesting....

http://www.lta.org.uk/in-your-area/scotland/news/May-09/North-Take-Team-Of-The-Year-Accolade/

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

The Hoose wrote:

Perhaps we were wrong to be too critical of Jamie's poor work ethic - in trying so hard to find a better combination, changing coaches and partners, trying to be more professional, Jamie's effervescence seems to have been sapped out of him. It's sad watching interviews with Jamie now and wondering where the bubbly personality has disappeared to.

Agree with you there, Hoose. I keep on hoping something'll suddenly click back into place & he'll rediscover his confidence & start producing the results again.

Interesting article on the Times web site (not in the paper today, but it may materialise on Sunday) by Barry Flatman, the tennis correspondent for The Sunday Times, on Jamie's present predicament. hmm

angry1 · Lower Club Player

Star wrote:

I thought the last paragraph on this was interesting....

http://www.lta.org.uk/in-your-area/scotland/news/May-09/North-Take-Team-Of-The-Year-Accolade/

At the start of the year I thought Jamie should try playing some challengers with Colin Fleming,but might not be willing to play with someone so low ranked.Now you have to wonder with his partnership with Ken Skupski still improving,whether Colin should risk it.