Jamie Murray's dalliance with Jelena Jankovic is getting serious. The pair yesterday beat the highly rated pair of Mark Knowles and Zi Yan 6-7, 7-6, 6-3.
Murray believes the partnership now has a "good shot"
at winning the championship.
"I don't see why we can't win more matches," he added.
He is on a great personal run, winning in Nottingham with Eric Butorac, coming through two rounds of the men's doubles at Wimbledon and now notching up two victories with Jankovic.
The Serb is enjoying herself but admitted she is surprised at how she has adapted to doubles at the top level.
"I never have liked playing doubles so I don't know why I said yes," she said last night. "But now I feel I have made a good decision. I have had a lot of fun. I hope we can keep winning matches."
She was modest about her part in the success. "I really don't know anything about doubles. I have to learn about this game," she said.
Murray admitted that he "did a lot more running" than he does when partnered by Butorac but added that Jankovic is a ferocious hitter from the back of the court.
"I have to cover the middle a bit more of my serve," he said, "but she came out with some great shots today against Mark Knowles who wasn't expecting it at all."
Jankovic said of the effort expended by the partnership. "He is the one who is all sweaty and puffing, like smoke coming out, and I am the one who is completely cool, like fresh as a daisy.
"I am not even tired but he is the one who has to cover everything."
Murray may face more fatigue. He is, of course, still in the men's doubles and could face the prospect of playing three times today.
"We may have to play two men's doubles tomorrow," he said. "That could be tough if they go to five sets." He added of his partnership with Butorac: "It's tough because we haven't played for about a week now."
It will certainly not be easy. They will immediately face the top seeded Bryan brothers if they defeat Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner of the Czech Republic today.
In the mixed doubles, he also faces a tie today against Julian Knowle of Australia and Tiantian Sun of China as the doubles matches back up.
Murray admitted he was considering inviting Jankovic to Scotland for Christmas.
That, presumably, is if the Wimbledon mixed doubles are over by then.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article