As we move closer to December’s much-anticipated Schroders Battle of the Brits – Scotland versus England event at P&J Live, tennis hero Jamie Murray continues to serve up a series of exclusive columns for the Press and Journal.
In this latest instalment, Jamie talks about turning his full attention to the Granite City showdown following the end of the 2021 season.
Jamie, 35, a multiple Grand Slam champion in both men’s doubles and mixed doubles, reached the US Open final with partner Bruno Soares towards the tail-end of the campaign, before winning in St Petersburg and securing their places at the ATP World Tour Finals.
With Scotland’s men’s singles stars also looking good in terms of fitness and form, it is shaping up to be a top-class tennis spectacle.
While Cameron Norrie is on the cusp of the world’s top 10 – having also played at the Tour Finals – four-time Slam winner Sir Andy Murray, Jamie’s brother, has also built up a promising amount of court time, and equally promising results.
All my focus is now on putting on top-level tennis show at P&J Live
With the 2021 tennis season over and Battle of the Brits – Scotland v England now less than a month away, all of my focus is on delivering a top-level event for the crowd in Aberdeen on December 21 and 22.
Normally at this time of year you would be looking to go away for 10 days or so for some outdoor training in the good weather, ahead of the 2022 season starting in Australia.
I haven’t made any plans this time around, as I’m not sure how busy things could get with the Battle of the Brits – Scotland v England coming up. I don’t want to go away, be in a funny timezone, have people trying to get hold of me to make decisions and delaying those by being off the radar.
Maybe I will go away for a few days – but we’ll see how things go in the next couple of weeks. Given it is the first time we have put on an event of this magnitude in front of fans, there’s a lot more in terms of logistics, work load and potential pitfalls.
I’ll certainly be at home in London, spend some time in Scotland and probably try to visit Aberdeen once or twice in the next few weeks, just to speak to the staff at P&J Live and so on.
The players will arrive on December 20, the day before play gets under way, with a lot of them coming from their warm-weather camps abroad I imagine.
I will be up with my manager, Mary, on the 19th – which is when we take command of the venue – as our team need to get the court built, which is the main thing and the most time-consuming bit.
A lot of people won’t realise how long it takes for the paint to dry on the floor!
Season ends positively for me – with Scotland team-mate Cam Norrie flourishing and Andy looking strong
Personally, my season ended on a positive note. We did well to qualify for the ATP Tour Finals, where my partner Bruno Soares and I exited at the group stage.
However, getting there was one of our biggest goals for the season, following loads of stuff which had gone on during the campaign, with illnesses, injuries, surgeries, Covid bubbles and so on. There were so many distractions and it was quite a frustrating year in that regard.
Towards the end of the year, when things were a bit calmer for us, we put together some good results – including winning the St Petersburg Open and, before then, reaching the final at Flushing Meadows. We also went deep into the tournament at the Paris Masters to qualify for the top-eight in Turin.
We’re happy how we finished, and it gives us a bit of confidence moving into Battle of the Brits – Scotland v England, while will also be broadcast on the BBC iPlayer, and then next year.
In terms of my Scotland team-mates, Cam Norrie is coming in to P&J Live on the brink of the world men’s singles top-10 and having got in to the Tour Finals as an alternate before going on to play two matches.
It was another amazing achievement after playing amazing tennis all year across all of the surfaces.
Meanwhile, Andy played a lot of tennis at the back end of the year and his body seemed to hold up well.
He lost a lot of tight matches to top-ranked players, and won over top-ranked players as well, so I think he’ll be feeling good about his game and fitness as well.
With a good pre-season they should both be coming to play for Scotland firing on all cylinders.
Unfortunately Kyle Edmund has been forced to withdraw from Team England as he is still recovering from knee surgery earlier in the year.
Kyle was desperate to play and would have loved to go through his pre-season and then finish with Battle of the Brits – Scotland v England matches against top players like Andy and Cam.
However, it hasn’t worked out and Jack Draper has agreed to come in to replace him.
Jack looks like he’ll be the future of British men’s tennis, having made headlines when he met Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon earlier this year, and we are excited to see what level he brings.
Young star @jackdraper0 will be heading to #aberdeen alongside Dan Evans @nealskupski @joesalisbury92 for Team England #battleofthebrits 🏴🎾 pic.twitter.com/KDMwKoESs7
— Schroders Battle of The Brits (@BattleofTheBrit) November 16, 2021
High-quality action looks to be guaranteed.
We’ve also named our Scotland and England team captains for the event, getting Ally McCoist and Paul Lawrie involved to lead us Scots, with Chris Sutton and Clare Balding taking charge of Team England.
It is something a bit different, and – for the fans and the players – I think it will be cool to have people from other sports and other walks of life supporting their countrymen.
I hope Ally is still speaking to me after a weekend of football which saw my team Hibs beat Rangers in the League Cup semis!
Tickets for Battle of the Brits – Scotland v England in Aberdeen
For Battle of the Brits – Scotland versus England tickets ahead of the event on December 21 and 22, click here.
The tennis action will be spread across three sessions, with two-time Wimbledon champion, US Open winner and double Olympic gold medallist Sir Andy Murray playing in every session.