British doubles legend Murray retires from tennis

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Seven-time Grand Slam champion Jamie Murray retires

ByRussell FullerTennis correspondent

Published24 minutes ago
108 Comments

Jamie Murray, who became the first British doubles player to rise to world number one, has announced his retirement from tennis.

The seven-time Grand Slam champion, who had not played since last August's US Open, said he was "excited to enter the real world".

"My tennis journey comes to an end after 36 years," Murray, 40, posted on Instagram.

"I feel very fortunate and privileged for all the amazing experiences this great sport has given me.

"Thanks Mum, Dad, Andy, Ale, Alan, Louis and Thomas for all your incredible support, efforts and sacrifices throughout my career that allowed me to achieve everything I could in the game.

"For everybody else that's helped and supported me - I appreciate all of you!"

Murray won two of his 34 doubles titles with his younger brother Andy, and they teamed up to devastating effect as GB won the Davis Cup in 2015 for the first time in 79 years.

The brothers often considered watching each other in big finals to be far too stressful, but Andy did appear in Jamie's coaching box at the 2016 Australian Open to take photos of his brother's first Grand Slam men's doubles title.

It was 01:00 and Andy was due to play Novak Djokovic in the singles final in Melbourne just 18 hours later.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" Jamie enquired, as he accepted the trophy with the Brazilian Bruno Soares.

The two added the US Open title in the summer and finished the year as the world's number one pair - just as his brother did in singles.

Murray also won five mixed doubles titles, including two at Wimbledon - with Jelena Jankovic in 2007 and Martina Hingis 10 years later.

Murray made his name in doubles

A left-hander, Murray also played a major part in Britain's Davis Cup success, playing brilliantly alongside his brother in the quarter-final with France at the Queen's Club in a five-set, four-hour semi-final match with Australia, before seeing off the Belgian pair as Britain won the title in Ghent.

Murray will be remembered for his razor-sharp volleying skills and the preposterous angles he conjured at the net. His returns were often unorthodox and he was fond of a lobbed service return to unsettle opponents.

His mother Judy thought Jamie had the better hand-eye co-ordination of her sons when young. Jamie and Andy briefly became rivals as tennis players - and also while wrestling on the duvet.

Judy once recalled: "Andy's favourite [wrestler] was The Rock and Jamie's was Stone Cold Steve Austin, and they used to create these bouts that they saw on the television. They used to wrestle each other on the duvet and thump each other with pillows, and create these belts and make up their own rules and scoring systems."

Jamie is 15 months older than Andy, and as his early dominance on the tennis court started to fade Andy says he quite literally bore the brunt.

"We were coming back from Solihull in the minibus and I'd beaten Jamie in the final, I think, of the under-12s, so basically I was winding him up about that and my hand was on the hand rest," he told BBC Sport in 2015.

"We were sitting next to each other and he just basically punched me on the hand - I lost my fingernail and I've still got the scars to show for it."

Despite some defeats against his brother, Jamie was still very much on track for a professional singles career until a negative experience at an LTA training school in Cambridge in his very early teens.

He struggled with living away from home and the elite training environment, and even though he has never sought to blame the LTA, his forehand suffered and he has said he was never quite the same player again.

'Mutual affection' between Murray brothers

Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption,

Jamie and Andy Murray played together at Wimbledon in 2024

Alongside his triumphs, Murray has been a staunch defender of doubles players and frequently demanded they be shown more respect.

"The level is very high. The money is good," he said at the Queen's Club in 2014.

"Contrary to other comments, it is not just a bunch of crap players getting a lucky break with their career. No one is just kind of coasting by and making a decent living.

"It's not like that at all. I think we deserve a bit more credit than maybe we get."

Murray leaves the sport with more Grand Slam and tour doubles titles than any other British player in the Open Era.

He achieved so much while the attention was often on someone else in the family.

The brothers have had their odd public disagreement. Jamie criticised Andy's late withdrawal from a 2008 Davis Cup tie in Argentina, while Andy shared his frustration when Jamie slept through his alarm and ended up with nasty heatstroke at the sweltering Australian Open of 2014.

But Jamie has never shown any jealousy towards his younger sibling, and their mutual affection has often been in evidence.

They ultimately chased success in two different disciplines of the sport, and both rose to the very top.

The tennis rivalry they shared is long since gone, but another one is no doubt developing as both spend much of their newly found time on the golf course.