Marray's Wimbledon title bid ends in quarter-finals

The 35-year-old lost in the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles competition along with partner Adil Shamasdin of Canada, going down 6-4 7-6 6-3 to number 12 seeds Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi.

Marray and Shamasdin were by their own admission below par against two of the most formidable players on the men’s doubles circuit, with the Yorkshireman losing his serve in the very first game to set the tone for the match.

“It was a disappointing performance and I didn’t play very well personally,” said Marray afterwards. “They were good but I served rubbish from the off and just couldn’t get my rhythm going.

“They’re tough to play against anyway but when you’re playing like that you’re giving yourself a mountain to climb from the off. But it has been a good week and a bit, looking back on it as a whole.

“To make the quarters after a pretty rubbish lead up to Wimbledon is okay with me. I’ll take that. Of course you hope you can go all the way, and playing our best I think we could have done, but the last eight isn’t bad.”

Marray first came to national prominence in 2012 at the age of 31 when he won the men’s doubles at Wimbledon, partnering Frederik Nielsen of Denmark to the title. That partnership broke up because Nielsen wanted to continue playing singles whereas Marray is a specialist doubles player, meaning their tournament schedules rarely coincided.

This time Marray hopes to maintain his partnership with Shamasdin, 34, who also specialises in doubles, their good form on the way to this year’s Wimbledon quarter-finals giving hope for the future.

“It’s a new partnership but we’ve shown we can play well together,” said Marray.

“We didn’t play well today but we’ve been pretty decent over the course of our other matches, so we definitely want to play together for the foreseeable future.”

Marray and Shamasdin will now head to the USA where they are set to play next week in the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships at Newport, Rhode Island.