JAMIE MURRAY SERVING AND BRUNO SOARES RETURNING – A DEADLY COMBINATION!

After their victory in the final over the pair of Andrey Golubev (Kazakhstan) – Hugo Nys (Monaco), the champions of St. Petersburg Open 2021 in doubles shared their formula for success with the journalists.

Were you worried at any point that you might lose today’s match? Were there any troubles or it was a comfortable win?

Jamie Murray: We had some troubles, maybe at that point in the game where it was 4-2 in the first set, to keep our momentum. Bruno played a couple of great shots to get us out of that game. They are dangerous players, going hard at the return. I think we did well, we made a couple of great returns, forced them to play tough volleys, as the match went on, we did better on our serve, we did a good job stopping them from doing great hits on the ball.

Bruno, on every occasion when there is a return you are playing it perfectly. In every game you never lose a deciding point, how come?

Bruno Soares: The return is one of my strengths. Jamie is one of the best players at the net, to put on pressure, so it is a dangerous combination. And the deciding point is already tough for the server, there is a lot of pressure involved so if you can add some extra pressure it’s good. Also I like the conditions indoors, they suit my return the ball is not moving so much, it helps a lot. We have been having a good week, which has also helped.

What are the odds for you to go in Turin now?

1. M.: They are getting higher with every match that we win. I think now we have over 500 point lead on the team behind us, but in Paris if you win there is a 1000 points. We are still good favorites to qualify but it is not official and we still need to go to Paris and try to do a good week there.

When do you think it might become official?

B.S.: Hopefully team number 9 – Simone Bolelli and Maximo Gonzalez loses early and then we qualify. We are number 8 now, there are two teams who have a chance. So we just need to have a good week and hope that their week is not that great.

You also both praised the spectators for coming, because it is easier playing with them and without the closed doors. How are you coping with Covid-19 restrictions in general?

B.S.: I struggle more than Jamie, it is tough for me being inside a room being locked, away from my family and my kids. For us it is quite nice being here like these nowadays, where we can all walk around such a beautiful city and seeing the spectators. It is good playing in a big stadium full of people with a good energy.

1. M.: It wasn’t easy, for us, who spend a lot of time in the hotel room surrounded by four walls. You would lose your match and you would go back to your hotel room and you can’t get away from the match, because all you are doing is sitting in your hotel room. You can’t go to a restaurant with your friends to take your mind off. It’s not so easy to travel, not so easy to go home for two days to get away to refresh and recharge your energy coming back to the next tournament. It’s permanent. I don’t think it was much fun, but I guess at least we could still have our jobs to compete and earn our money, because that’s what we do, it’s our job. It was difficult times. The last two-three months it’s been a lot better: in the US in the summer it was a lot more open, we could kind of live our normal lives, keep getting tested. That was much better. And here this week as well it was better: we went to nice restaurants and had a lot of good food this week, we enjoyed it a lot more.

Are you continuing to play together overall? And are we going to see you in this very combination next year here in St. Petersburg?

1. M.: I hope so.

B.S.: We hope so, yes. I think yes, we are playing together, but we haven’t discussed it yet. I would say I would definitely come back to St. Petersburg – I don’t know if it’s going to be to play tennis or for vacation. It’s my first time here and it’s an amazing city. I want to come back in the summer to explore more. It’s a bit cold now for Brazilian during this time of the year. But it’s just such a beautiful place. And hopefully we come back to play tennis as well. It’s been an awesome week and it’s a great event.

J. M.: As for me, I don’t mind the cold, I’m from Scotland. I can deal with the cold (laughter). We had an amazing week, a lot of fun, played a lot of great tennis, stayed in a lovely hotel in an amazing beautiful city, we ate a lot of great food, lot of nice restaurants in this city. For me it would be a great pleasure to come back, no problems at all.