Jamie Murray - who's the man?

[Sallydaisy]

Jamie Robert Murray (born 13 February 1986 in Dunblane) is a British tennis player from Scotland who specialises in doubles and is Britain's number 1 doubles player as at 26/9/11. He won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title in 2007 with Jelena Janković which makes him the most recent British Grand Slam title holder in a senior event. In October 2010, Jamie married Alejandra Gutierrez of Colombia.

Jamie Murray was born to Willie and Judy in Dunblane, Scotland. At the age of 11, Jamie finished runner-up in the boys under-12 category at the prestigious Junior Orange Bowl widely regarded as a benchmark for further success. Jamie was the junior world #2 when he was about 13 years old and was selected to be educated at The Leys School in Cambridge while being coached by national coaches. Unfortunately, the arrangement didn't work for Jamie and he became disillusioned with the world of tennis. For the next 3 years he remained based in Dunblane to concentrate on school and getting his golf handicap down to a very respectable 3.

He still played in a number of events and drifted back to the circuit properly and spent some time at Bob Brett’s academy in Paris. He finished his final year as a junior ranked around 40 in singles and eleventh in the world for doubles. In 2004 he partnered his brother to the semi final of the Junior US Open Grand Slam.

Senior Career
In 2006 he reached two ATP Tour doubles finals. In late July, Murray and the American player Eric Butorac reached the final of the Los Angeles tournament which they lost in straight sets to the world's top-ranked doubles team, the Bryan brothers. In September, partnering his younger brother, Murray reached the final of the Bangkok tournament, losing to the top Israeli doubles pairing Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich (2–6 6–2 4–10).

In early February 2007, Murray and Butorac claimed their first doubles title[9] in the AT&T Challenger tournament. They then won back to back doubles titles on the ATP Tour, at the SAP Open in San Jose[10] and the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships at the Racquet Club of Memphis.[11] These victories lifted Murray into the top 50 in the ATP doubles rankings for the first time. After winning his mixed doubles title with Jelena Janković at Wimbledon, Murray again reached a mixed doubles semi-final of the 2007 US Open aside Liezel Huber, coming within ten points of winning a place in the final.

Jamie began 2008 with his new doubles partner Max Mirnyi, but the partnership struggled. Despite victory in the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships in February, they had failed to reach any other finals, winning just one of their first four matches as a pair and going out of eleven tournaments within the first two rounds, including at the 2008 Australian Open. Without Mirnyi, Murray appeared to have had more success, reaching the semi-final of the Movistar Open with Nicolás Lapentti in January and the final of the Estoril Open with Kevin Ullyett in April.

Mixed doubles once again proved to be more successful for Murray in 2008. Competing with Liezel Huber he reached the final of the 2008 US Open, though they lost out to Cara Black and Leander Paes. He also reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon and the quarter-finals in the French Open.

2009
Jamie played the Brisbane and Sydney tournaments with Serbian Dušan Vemić but played the Australian Open with his old partner Eric Butorac as Vemić was unavailable. Butorac and Murray, who had not played together since the 2007 US Open, lost in the first round at Melbourne Park. After splitting from Vemić at the end of February, Murray played with several different partners but success did not happen and he began to fall down the rankings making it harder to get into tournaments with higher points on offer. Dropping out of the world top one hundred, Murray returned to the Challenger circuit with new partner Jamie Delgado. Playing in these lower ranked tournaments, he won his first tournament of any sort in eighteen months at the Tirani Cup in August 2009, followed by wins at the TEAN International (with Jonathan Marray) and the Ljubljana Open. He was semi-finalist in the Challenger event in Orléans, France. He topped off the year with a win in Astana, Kazakhstan again partnering Jonathan Marray.

He reached the semi-finals of the mixed doubles at Wimbledon with his regular partner Liezl Huber.

2010
Jamie started the 2010 year as a semi-finalist in the ATP Challenger event in São Paulo, Brazil. His first win of the year came in Salinas, Ecuador with Marray again. He lost with Marray in another Challenger event in Bucaramanga, Colombia on clay in the quarter-finals. Murray ended the season with another Challenger win, in Bratislava.

He also competed in the mixed doubles at Wimbledon, this time alongside Laura Robson, but lost in the first round. Playing in his first tournament since getting married, Murray played with his brother Andy Murray. The pair had a great week in Valencia and won the tournament. This was Jamie's first win on the top level of the tour for over two years and the first time that he has won a doubles title with his brother.


2011
Murray began 2011 playing with Xavier Malisse. Though the pair lost in their first ATP event at Chennai, Murray won his first match at a Grand Slam since Wimbledon 2008 as they progressed to the second round of the Australian Open. Murray followed this up with two semi-final appearances, partnering Alexander Peya at the SA Open and his brother Andy at Rotterdam. These successes saw Murray climb back into the world top 50.

At the French Open Jamie and his partner Chris Guccione were eliminated in the second round of the men's doubles by the number one seeded Bryan Brothers, but he progressed to the semi-final of the mixed doubles with Nadia Petrova. In August, partnering Santiago Gonzalez, he reached the semi-finals of the Winston–Salem Open he lost in straight sets to Christopher Kas and Alexander Peya 7-6, 6-3, At the US Open he and partner Santiago González went out in the first round in straight sets to Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner who went on to win the US Open.

He next played at the Open de Moselle, where he partnered Andre Sa, going on to win the tournament defeating Lukáš Dlouhý and Marcelo Melo in the final, winning in straight sets.

[Linda]

Thanks Sally! What a pity he can't get points for mixed!

[RoastLamb]

Brilliant bio of Jamie, Sally.

[JAMES4578]

Great Bio Sally, well done. I look forward to supporting Jamie on here too! On another note fab we have a thanks button again!

[supergran]

Thanks so much for that brilliant bio of Jamie. It will be great to support him on here and I wish him success in the coming years. Love Jamie!!