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Control the Controllables
CTC Short: British Doubles Pioneer – Celebrating Jamie Murray’s Legacy
00:18:46
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- [00:00]
A
So as a former professional tennis player loosely and now a professional coach working on tour, one thing that I see constantly, even at the very highest level of the game is players working incredibly hard, but not always smart, not always in the most structured of ways. Now there's so much information around strength and conditioning that it can become a little bit overwhelming for people. You know, players are just adding more hours, more sessions, more volume when what they really need, they need clarity. And I've seen technically excellent players out there plateau in their tennis not because of their skill level, but because their physical foundations weren't strong enough to support their game and their talent. That's why for me, tennis athlete is the platform that sets the standard. It provides a clear, structured approach to strength and conditioning. Every program is age appropriate, it's research informed and it's delivered by SC coaches with proven track records of long term results. It's the platform that I trust when it comes to physical development. And if you're ready to take your development seriously, head over to sototenis.com tennisathlete that's sototenis.com SL Tennis Athlete because physical preparation is one of the biggest controllables that you have. Welcome to episode 279 of Control the
- [01:44]
B
Controllables and we're bringing a CTC short to you today to mark the retirement of, of a British tennis legend, Jamie Murray. And what a career he had. He came out this week, he let us know that enough was enough. I think those on the inside of the game maybe saw this coming. We haven't, we haven't seen him on the court in 2026, but it's a career that goes over 20 years. He's seven time Grand Slam winner, 39 titles, world number one, you know, and someone that really did put British doubles on the map. You know, we've seen the incredible success over the last few years with the British doubles players on the, on the male side. But really Jamie was the first one that came through. He was the one that was responsible alongside his mom Judy, of bringing Louis ca into the fold, who has obviously been the then the person that has ignited this just incredible, incredible run. Now we've been going through our archives and it was back in 2020 that we had Jamie on the podcast. I think he was our episode number 13. And he also came on, he spoke to us Instagram live during the COVID period. He's always been fantastic at, given his time to control the controllables, but also to sort of tennis academy, you know, the Davis Cup. I remember our Kids seeing Jamie and him giving his time and photos and all of all of those precious moments that then inspire the next generation. And he's going to leave a legacy. He's really is already going into lots of other things within the game. But we just wanted to share this little short clip, about 13, 14 minutes, where he talks about his Wimbledon title when he was age 21. He talks about what it felt like to become world number one and also becoming Jamie Murray, not just Andy Murray's brother.
- [03:48]
C
Not even going to get you to pick one experience, because you've had some amazing experiences. And I definitely would love to hear about Wimbledon. You know, I think, you know, winning Wimbledon, you know, how was that? Because that was. That kind of came out the blue, the mixed doubles in Wimbledon a little bit, didn't it?
- [04:06]
D
Yeah, I mean, well, totally. I mean, I was. I was 20, 21. Wow. 21. And I was probably. I mean, I was probably about 30 in the world. Like 25, 30 in the world. So, like, I was. I was on the up with my doubles career, but I mean, I'd never played singles. It was my second year playing at Wimbledon. I played the year before of Colin Fleming. We got a wild card in. I think we were ranked 150 or something. We got a wildcard in and we lost in the first round. But. So that was my only ever experience of playing at Wimbledon. But fast forward a year. I'd won three tour events by that stage with Eric Buttrek, and I think we lost in the third round to Dulouy and Wisner, which was actually on like the second Friday of the tournament. We were in the third round because it rained basically for a week in the middle of the tournament, and they were so far behind. And. Yeah, I mean, basically we just. We signed in, like. Yeah, we signed in and then we were just playing and we basically. I think we played like five matches the last three days of the tournament. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I think we played two or three times on Centre Court and was in the Royal Box on Sunday evening with a trophy above my head. It was like, wow, okay, this is a cool experience. You know, get used to that.
- [05:35]
C
Absolutely.
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D
It was not something I ever expected or anything. I mean, I mean, that week I was sleeping on Jamie Delgado's couch. Yeah. I mean, on his sofa bed. Yeah. Getting the car over to Wimbledon and played in center court. Come back, sleep on the couch, go back.
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C
It's amazing.
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B
No, it is, it's amazing.
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C
And we actually. I spoke to Johnny Marray and Freddie Nielsen. It was the first podcast we did, and obviously they spoke about their run in 2012, which was just. Which was incredible. And then we also spoke to Evan Hoyt, who's at the Academy, and Eden Silva, who almost had a run this year.
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B
I mean, that was.
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D
Where did they get to Quarters.
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C
Quarters. But five, two up in both sets in the quarters to Dodditch and Chanu, who won the event quite comfortably. And they were. It was the common thing that seems to be with all of those stories. And same with you, playing with Yankovic, the lack of expectation at first and just enjoying the ride, Just enjoying the experience, enjoying the ride, you know, and just day after day and like you say, all of a sudden you're holding the trophy in the box. And I think sometimes the later people go on in the careers and the more that those things happen, the more it's expected. It's maybe harder to quite have that same kind of carefree attitude.
- [06:52]
D
Yeah, definitely. I mean, that's because, again, because expectation isn't it. I mean, like, for me then, I mean, I had no expectation of myself. I was just out there playing. Whereas now, if I go back to play, like, I know that I can win that tournament and I know, you know, I've got a good partner. You know, me, myself, I'm a top player in the world. My partner is as well. And, you know, like, there's. Yeah. And then also you're aware that people coming out to watch you, like, they expect to see you win because you're top British player playing at Wimbledon, and they're there to support you. And, you know, they're excited about that. And, you know, they're not going there thinking, oh, gonna watch him, he's gonna lose, whatever. It's like they're coming out to support because they want to see you win. So all that adds up to it. But I think, I mean, I don't really. Personally, I don't really think about it that much. Like, the outside stuff, I mean, I have obviously my own expectations, which. Which comes with its own performance pressures. But that's just. In a way, it's a good thing to have that. Because if you're just turning up just to play, just to be a part of it, like, can't really expect great things. I mean, you get one off results here and there. But I think over the course of, you know, career and stuff, you have to have expectations of yourself.
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C
Absolutely.
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D
Yeah.
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A
And I think that's the thing that
- [08:18]
C
amazed me so much with Johnny and Freddie, because I'm such good friends with them. And I was there pretty much every match that year. It was the fact that it never quite caught up to them, because it normally does. You know, you have the. Then you get maybe quarters, maybe semis, and then you get caught out with the expectation. But they almost. Just to ride the wave throughout the tournament was incredible.
- [08:40]
D
I think. I think with doubles as well, like, you could get. You can get on again. You can get on a roll as well. And also in that format, like, you're playing so much more. It's not so, like, short and sharp like the regular tour. So you're, you know, you're serving a lot more, you're returning a lot more. You're not. The pressure, the score pressure is not the same either. So it's kind of. I think mentally it's easier to play because, you know, you've got time to, you know, get into the match. You've got time to potentially come back from the match if you're. If you're down. And I think, like, I'm sure they. They felt the same thing. I'm sure a lot of Douglas players, like, once you start getting into tournament, you know, it's like, you know, confidence builds from match to match, and you're not, you know, people are more stressed about the first round than they are by, you know, semis or perhaps even in final, because by that stage, you've played five or six matches, you might play like 15 sets, like, you're winning most of them, you know, you're playing well or you're feeling good, and it's just a case of, like, okay, I go out and do it again. Whereas first round, like, everyone's a bit edgy, anxious. No one wants to go out in the first round. You don't know how you're playing. Not quite sure the conditions, blah, blah, blah. But once you play that first match, I feel like it's a lot easier to, you know, you're in the tournament, then you kind of. You relax a bit.
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C
No, I feel it with the juniors I coach all the time or the players I call, it's the same. I think it's the same at all levels. It's. It is. No, but nobody wants to be going out first round but you. Now, now I want. What I want to talk about is being world number one.
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D
Yeah.
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C
You know, how was that feeling?
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D
Well, it was. I mean, obviously it was. I mean, it was super cool to, you know, look at the rankings on Monday morning in April, whenever it was, and see your name on the, you know, with a big one. Next to it, which is really cool. I mean, it was weird in the way that we did it because we lost in the first round of Miami in a tie break, kind of like let the match get away from us. And I remember that night, I was like, you know, shit, I might never get the chance to be world number one again. That might be the closest I ever get to it. And then got in the car the next day and was driving to Sarasota, about 3, 4 hour drive with my wife to see some of her family that were up there. And I wasn't really paying attention. Didn't even quite know, sort of like the permutations of the tournament. But my phone started going crazy and people like, you know, you're gonna be number one. Mel was just lost. And then, yeah, then it was like, wow, okay, this is, this is happening, you know, and it was, yeah, it was cool. It was a weird way to kind of, to kind of get it. But, you know, it doesn't really matter because it's based on 52 weeks rather than, you know, one day's, one day's results and.
- [11:52]
C
Absolutely.
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A
And I think I touched on it
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C
earlier, my own personal experience of being number one in Britain, certainly not number one in the world. There was maybe in my head, because
- [12:06]
B
I'd set that as a barrier, but you.
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C
The barrier in your head being world number one. There's no. Nobody's putting the barrier.
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B
There you are.
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A
Where do you go?
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D
I only go die in. That's a. Sure.
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B
Exactly. You know, so how, how was that
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C
even, even subconsciously, do you think it was then harder to keep motivating or, you know, I always find it amazing that guys stay there for so long as well, because
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D
I definitely didn't find it like, difficult to find motivation because ultimately for me, like, I wanted to be. I wanted to be at the top for as long as I can. Not necessarily as number one, but certainly playing at the top of the game and competing for those titles for as long as I can. And also, like, in a way, you want to feel like you earned it and you justify it from, you know, to be number one for as long as possible. And so even like, you know, I turn up at the tournaments and kind of feel a bit awkward, like, you know, you didn't maybe quite know how to sort of act a bit. And, you know, it's not like, it's not like you've got number one tattooed on your forehead or anything, or you're running around telling people that. But obviously when people, you know, when People look at you, other players and stuff, they're thinking, oh, he's, he's number one, whatever. And it's like, okay, you know, do they think, fuck, he should be number one, he deserves to be number one. Is he really the best? Like that sort of stuff. Like, I felt that I don't know if everyone does, but it kind of motivated me to try to stay there as long as I could. I mean, I think I did like six weeks or something and then it changed. But I had opportunities the rest of that year to get back to number one. Like in the, like one off matches where if I won, I would have got back there and I lost like two or three times. And then actually me and then Bruno had a chance in Shanghai. If we won a match against Piers in concert, he would have got to number one and I would have been two. But we lost that. And then he never, he never got there in the end. And I always feel bad about that because, like, that day, like, I didn't really play a particularly great match. Not because I was thinking that, you know, if he wins, he gets number one, but just the fact that obviously he was playing with me, like him and Piers got me to number one. And I wasn't able to kind of do the same for him because to be honest, like, he deserved to be number one more than probably most players around that time because he'd been in like the top five or six for quite a long time and had been like really consistent on the tour, but just had never got to one because when he was doing it, the brines were, which is better than everybody else.
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C
Amazing. Amazing to move gears a little bit almost.
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B
I want to go into some quick
- [15:11]
C
fire questions in a minute, but the one thing I do want to ask you, and you one thing that again, I think is amazing what you've done in your career is you've created Jamie Murray rather than just being Andy's brother. And I would imagine for a few years it probably was a little bit that you were Andy's brother.
- [15:34]
D
Definitely. Yeah.
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C
And that what were the pros and the cons of that?
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D
I don't know about pros necessarily. I mean, for me it was just like. I mean, I understood it. And you know, everyone, you know, loads of people, they'd go to talk to you so they could talk about Andy, whether that was, you know, journalists or fans or people within tennis family or community, let's say, you know, they'd always come up to talk to you. You know, how's Andy? What's he doing blah, blah, blah and he's like, okay, fine, whatever.
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C
Yeah, yeah.
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D
I mean I never got like, it never like truly bothered me, but obviously sometimes just like, you know, whatever.
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C
Yeah.
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D
But of course that started to change as probably like 2013 onwards, maybe, let's say, let's say 50 onwards especially. Yeah, when I really was like playing at the top and you know, was, was top 10 all those years and you know, winning Grand Slams or finals or whatever and Davis cup was going on and stuff like that. So. And then obviously get to get to number one, like, so then like I could feel the shift.
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B
So there we have it.
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A
I know how you feel, Jamie.
- [16:53]
B
You know, we, ever since we had Andy Murray on the podcast, this now just known as the podcast that Andy Murray came onto. You know, it's, it's, it's a hardship when you're living in the shadows of such a great. But I, I think that's quite a nice fitting end to Jamie talking about his career becoming his own person back in 2015, you know, winning those titles, becoming world number one and, and has then gone on to continue doing that obviously the Davis cup as well with his brother. What special moments that family have. To look back, anyone that does follow tennis on the tv, you will see that Jamie's already making a seamless move into television broadcasting, into commentating. I think you're going to see a lot of him on the screens. He's very comfortable, does a great job of that. We've also seen him as the director at Queen's Club, you know, and over the last, over the last couple of years as well. And there's no doubt he'll have plenty opportunities coming his way. A big, big well done, Jamie. On behalf myself and all of Control the Controllables on, on a quite special, special career. I know personally, we've had it, we had a few battles on the court many, many years ago and as good as you were in lots of ways, I would have never quite predicted seven grand slams, world number one. And to have a career that has spanned 20 plus years, that deserves an absolute tip of the hat. Enjoy your retirement. All the best with the next part of your journey. But until next time, I'm Dan Keanan and we are Control the Controllables.