Noah Rubin’s “Behind The Racquet” • With • Jamie Murray | Tennis 10sBalls

Editor’s note: 10sBalls thanks Noah Rubin for giving us permission to repost these great stories. We wish him and this endeavor the best of luck. Great seeing Noah wearing K-Swiss and playing Solinco Strings.

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“I guess it’s something that I was used to, starting around 16 or 17. Andy made his breakthrough into the big leagues around 18 when he played Queens and then made third round of Wimbledon. For a long time, people would talk to me just because they wanted to ask Andy questions, which still happens today. People come up asking me where Andy is and how he is doing. People would do interviews with me in the hopes that they could get to him. The last five or six years, I feel like that’s changed quite a lot. People now want to talk to me because of my own achievements that I’ve had in my career, which to be honest feels pretty nice after all this time. I don’t mind talking about my brother, It really never bothered me, but if that’s the sole purpose for doing an interview, or a chat, it just doesn’t seem necessary. He’s been such a big star of the tennis world for the last 10 years or so and I am proud of him. I was always his number one supporter. It was never really an issue for me. I wouldn’t say that it was like a motivation for me to work harder in my career, trying to get out of his shadow, but I would say that his mentality, his work ethic and what he achieved on the court, has inspired me to dedicate myself more to my career. I committed more time and did everything to master my skills. I have done everything necessary to have as successful of a career as possible. I’m sure I could have got better in singles than what I did, but it was never going to be at the same level as my doubles. There are moments when singles player talk down about doubles players or doubles game. The prize money will never be displayed accurately and doubles will always be on the back foot because singles is seen as the higher priority sport and the more premium discipline in tennis. It’s a totally different skill set and my skills have always been a lot more suited to playing doubles. Certainly in this current era of tennis the doubles game is in the best spot it has been in, since I started in 2007. It’s on TV far more often which is great for local market. Finally people in the UK can watch my matches with all these new ways to stream. I find it interesting when the singles guys compete against doubles. It’s fun watching these contrasting styles of tennis on the same court. The singles guys might rip on the doubles guys but at the end of the day, they’re still out there competing each week because it’s way for them to make basically stress free money. You just sign your name every week, doesn’t matter if you win, lose or draw and there’s no accountability for their performance. Whereas for doubles guys if I lose four times in a row, my ranking is going to drop and I won’t get into any tournaments. For the singles guys, it doesn’t matter what the results are they can just keep signing in. I do find it frustrating, and not a good look for our product, if there are guys on court playing without any interest of trying to win. They’re just there to get a little practice in, get used to the conditions and a quick paycheck. Since the money continues to grow in tennis, the whole pie is getting bigger. If you win a lot of these doubles tournaments, there is some real money on the line. For the singles guys, they know that it’s worthwhile to put in a little extra effort on top of their singles to play, and compete, and try to win. This is why the “tanking” doesn’t happen as much any more, because the money is crucial. I had no idea what would be possible for me in the world of tennis. I was top in the world from a very early age but lost my love for it around 13 for a few years. Took some real time to figure out if the sacrifice from myself, and the people around me, would be worth it and here we are today.” –Jamie Murray (jamie__murray)

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