Jamie Murray refused to blame his recent injury niggle after a second-round doubles defeat at the Wimbledon Championships.
Murray is a member of the LTA’s elite support programme, which delivers court access, medical, sports science and wellbeing support at the National Tennis Centre for ATP & WTA Top 100 singles players and Top 32 doubles.
He and partner Bruno Soares went out in three sets to Robin Haase and Andrey Golubev on court 12.
The home favourite and his Brazilian partner had taken the first set on a tie break, after some tight serving and aggressive net play.
It was an intriguing tie against an experienced duo with serious pedigree – Haase was previously ranked 33rd in singles – but both Murray and Soares looked comfortable early doors.
However, the tide turned when Murray’s serve was broken in the second set, with the wind whirling around the court making conditions tricky.
The former grand-slam champions then lost the opening game of the decider, missing opportunities to break back, and eventually going down 6-7, 6-3, 6-2.
Murray had suffered with a neck injury that hampered his build-up to the tournament but did not believe it was a factor in the result.
He said: “I need to try and get to the bottom of my serving issues, the rest of my games ok.
“It has been a battle; my ball toss change went well in Australia but since then it has been a bit of a battle. It is just frustrating, the different rhythm and timings.
“My neck was fine. I did not bother me in either of the matches that we played. That was obviously good, because it really was a battle to play for five or six days coming into the tournament.
“It was good to be able to play at a 100%, which I haven’t felt for a few weeks.
“I blew my serve in the second set, suddenly it was a set-all. Once they had something to fight for that was it. They played a really good third set, but if I hadn’t had issues with my serve in that game, we wouldn’t have lost serve.”
Murray reached the Wimbledon the final back in 2015, with Australian partner John Peers, but lost in straight sets to Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecău.
A men’s doubles title at his home slam still eludes him after this latest exit, although he has won the mixed doubles at SW19 twice previously in 2007 and 2017.
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