Tennis star Jamie Murray nets OBE from Queen

25 October 2016 02:08

Jamie Murray has been awarded an OBE for services to his sport and charity.

Murray, 30, older brother of Wimbledon champion Andy Murray, 29, has during the past 12 months won the US and Australian Open men's doubles titles and helped Great Britain clinch the Davis Cup.

After receiving the OBE from the Queen during a Buckingham Palace investiture ceremony, he said: "I never expected this, and it's not something you think about.

"It's amazing to be honoured like this for some of the achievements I've been able to do in my tennis career."

A four-year-old Murray, born in the Scottish town of Dunblane, began playing tennis alongside his younger sibling and turned professional at 18.

The brothers were set on the road to tennis stardom by their mother Judy Murray, a tennis coach and former captain of Great Britain's Fed Cup team, who joined him at the palace along with his Colombia-born wife Alejandra Gutierrez and father William Murray.

Jamie Murray came to wider attention when at the age of 21 he won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title in 2007 with Serbian Jelena Jankovic, becoming the first Briton to win a senior title at SW19 for 20 years.

A highlight of his career was being part of the team which won the Davis Cup last year, an historic victory as Great Britain lifted the famous trophy for the first time since 1936.

Murray arrived in London on Monday ahead of the investiture ceremony and was flying to Vienna later on Tuesday for a tennis tournament, but stressed he wanted to appreciate what was happening.

He said: "It's important to enjoy the moments, because what I've learned from tennis is that because you don't stop, it's so constant through the year, you might win an event and do really well in a tournament, and then you're off to play the next one on a Monday and you kind of miss the moment to really savour it."

The doubles player said topping the rankings earlier this year was a highlight of the past 12 months.

"To get to number one in the world - that was a huge achievement," he said.

"I think every sportsman wants to be the best that they can be I guess, so few people get to achieve that and I think it showed the consistency I had to get to that point.

"And obviously to win the Davis Cup as well was an amazing achievement for the whole team. It had been so long since the country had been able to do that, and I had so many memorable experiences playing for the country.

"Last year I had my best year and got to two grand slam finals, then I change partner (to Bruno Soares) and it was only our third tournament we played together and we won the Australian Open.

"For me it was an amazing feeling to do it, especially having lost finals and you never know when you're going to get back to one of them because they're the toughest tournaments we play in.

"And to do it again at the US Open was an incredible couple of weeks for us - we were really excited about it."

Source: PA