Jamie Murray, the older but less renowned of the Murray brothers, is in line to capture his second Wimbledon title when he and his Australian partner, John Peers, contest the Gentlemen’s Doubles final against the Dutch-Romanian team of Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau.
Murray lifted the mixed doubles title here in 2007 with Jelena Jankovic and his progress in the men’s event has steadily improved since he teamed up with Peers after the Australian Open three years ago.
It will be a formidable task for the Murray-Peers team. They have lost two of their three previous matches against Rojer-Tecau, the most recent in Rotterdam this year, and find themselves not only facing the No.4 seeds but a pair who won eight titles together last year.
However, as the No.13 seeds, Murray and Peers have already defeated the defending champions, Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock. Their only concern has been the groin injury sustained by Peers during their first round defeat at Queen’s Club three weeks ago.
Peers denied there had ever been a doubt about his Wimbledon participation, however. “I knew I was always going to get up for this,” he said. “It was just a matter of how well I was going to get up. I haven’t had any pain since the first Tuesday of Wimbledon and we didn’t play our first match until the Thursday. Touch wood, it’s got back to normal.”
For Rojer and Tecau, this is their first Grand Slam final as a team, though Tecau has been in the Wimbledon final on three previous occasions, losing all three in successive seasons between 2010 and 2012 with Robert Lindstedt as his partner.
A fourth disappointment is something Tecau is unwilling even to consider. Instead, he is hoping to follow in great footsteps by becoming the first Romanian to capture a men’s doubles since Ilie Nastase won the US Open with a certain Jimmy Connors in 1975, exactly 40 years ago.
Rojer and Tecau are both playing their seventh Wimbledon, but only their second as a team, and they have been impressive at Grand Slam level this year, reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open and Roland Garros. Their only title this year was in Rotterdam, and one which Murray and Peers will remember only too clearly since they were the beaten finalists.
The Murray-Peers combination has grown from modest beginnings, with Murray at a low point in his career when they first got together. “When we teamed up I had been playing in Challenger events with loads of different people,” he said. “It wasn’t much fun for me. It was my last effort to try and get back.”
They decided to try some tour events in Europe after the 2013 Australian Open. After that, they went to Houston, having not won many matches. But there they won the title, defeating the Bryan twins, the world’s No.1 team. “From then on we knew we could compete against the best,” said Murray.
That is precisely what they have done, though this is their best Grand Slam performance. This year they were beaten in the fourth round of both the Australian and French Opens, but they have won five titles together, the latest at Brisbane at the start of this season.
