Andy Murray stepped onto the Centre Court at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships together with his brother Jamie and lost in the first round of the doubles event.
Murray’s final Wimbledon won’t be how he hoped it would be. The Brit injured his back at the Cinch Championships recently, which required surgery. That surgery left his chances of playing fairly minimal, but he was able to muster up conviction confirming his participation at the event.
He withdrew from the singles competition, as that was a bit too much for his body so soon after surgery. However, he confirmed his participation in the doubles and mixed doubles events.
Today, he played the first of those matches, as he partnered with his brother Jamie for the men’s doubles. They faced very tricky opponents in the first round, as John Peers and Rinky Hijikata are both very good doubles players.
The match was about as close as it could get, as the opening set went to the tie-break after neither team was able to create any kind of chances. Tie-breaks on grass can be very volatile, as they can go either way.
The margin for error is so small, and it didn’t go the way of the Murray brothers. They lost the tiebreak 6-8 but started the second set with an early break. It was the ray of hope they needed, but it only lasted for a little while.
They were broken immediately after, with the scoreboard showing 2-2, and then later on, they were broken once more. They simply weren’t sharp enough because they didn’t serve as well as their opponents or hit the ball very well in live play.
Overall, it was a nice match for the brothers, who never played at Wimbledon together before. It was an emotional affair, as they lost 6-7(6), 4-6, but Murray will appear on the Wimbledon courts at least once more, as he will team up with Emma Raducanu in mixed doubles.