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Oh brother! When the Murray boys stayed with Janice . . .
LITTLE did Doncaster Lawn Tennis Club member Janice Jackson suspect when she agreed to put up two young Scottish brothers for the night that they would both go on to grace the Wimbledon Championships.
But that is just what doubles specialist Jamie Murray and younger brother Andy, now up to No 3 in the world men's singles rankings, have done.
Jamie partnered Serb Jelana Jankovic to the Wimbledon mixed doubles title in 2007, and Andy is tipped by many knowledgeable pundits to become the first Brit to win the men's singles title since Fred Perry in the 1930's.
He reached the last eight last season and is tipped to do even better in this year's event.
"They were both playing in the annual Trafford Press tournament at Doncaster and I was asked to put them up for the night by a member of the committee when they had a problem with their accommodation," recalled Janice at her Bessacarr ome this week.
"I can't remember much about it to be honest apart from the older boy (Jamie) insisting on checking out the bedroom before agreeing to stay.
"I didn't see much of them as they left the next morning and didn't have any breakfast.
"I didn't think any more about it at the time, but I've taken more of an interest in their careers in recent years."
Doncaster's head coach John Willis, who is the tournament referee for the 2009 championship which are being staged this week, remembers the two brothers well.
"Their mother Judy was the Scottish national coach at the time and she used to bring a squad of promising youngsters to the Doncaster tournament for several years," he said.
"You could see that they were both good players but you couldn't predict at that stage whether they were going to become as successful as they both have become.
"Andy was a nicely rounded player with a competitive instinct, but there were others around who were equally as talented.
"But what Scotland managed to do, and it's something that we don't appear to do well in this country, was to keep promising players in the sport and to continue to develop them after the age of 14 or 15."
Janice will be helping out in the running of the week-long Doncaster tournament, which has attracted a strong entry from all over the country, and will no doubt will be looking for another potential Wimbledon champion.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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