Jamie: Andy has changed

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:14

According to Jamie, the breakthrough finally came for his younger sibling during the grass court season last year where “it kind of clicked with him”.

“I knew that he was more than good enough to play at that level and it was frustrating for me to watch him not do as well as I felt he should be doing. He probably wasn’t as mentally strong as he should have been,” said Jamie. “In the last six months he has changed all that and he is playing so much better because of that I think.”

Having won hard court events in Doha and Marseille early in the season, Murray had an indifferent clay season before reaching the quarter-finals at Wimbledon where he came up against a fired-up Rafael Nadal.

But from there on in, the 21-year-old Scot seemed to find a new determination and more consistency which culminated in a US Open final appearance and ATP titles in Cincinnati, Madrid and St Petersburg.

By the end of the year he was ranked world number four, the best year-end ranking by a British player in the 36-year history of ATP rankings, and had become the first Brit to claim five ATP titles in a year in the Open era.

On top of that he had enjoyed success against Roger Federer, Nadal and Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic.

“Something changed because he became a lot more mentally mature on the court,” Jamie Murray added.

“Certainly I would say he started to understand how best to play his best tennis.”

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