TENNIS star Jamie Murray added another honour during what has been his most successful year on the court when he received his OBE from the Queen at Buckingham Palace yesterday.
The 30-year-old was given the award for services to his sport and charity in the Queen’s Birthday Honours earlier this year.
During the past 12 months, the doubles specialist from Dunblane, the younger brother of Wimbledon singles champion Andy Murray, has won the US and Australian Open titles, helped the Great Britain team clinch the Davis Cup and had a spell as world doubles No 1.
After the investiture ceremony in London, 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.”
Murray began playing tennis alongside his younger sibling when he was four and turned professional at 18.
The brothers were set on the road to tennis stardom by their mother Judy, a tennis coach and a former captain of Great Britain’s Fed Cup team, who joined him at the palace along with his Colombian-born wife Alejandra Gutierrez and father William Murray.
Jamie 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.
He was 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 yesterday ahead of the investiture ceremony and was flying to Vienna later today for a 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 No 1 in the world – that was a huge achievement. 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 have so many memorable experiences.
“Last year, I had my best year and got to two Grand Slam finals, then I change partner 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. You never know when you’re going to get back to one of them because Grand Slams are the toughest tournaments we play in.
“To do it again at the US Open was an incredible couple of weeks for us – we were really excited about it.”
Andy Murray serves up £305k charity boost
ANDY Murray’s first fundraising exhibition match, staged in Glasgow last month, raised more than £305,000 for two children’s charities in the UK. The Scottish tennis star staged the Andy Murray Live event at the SSE Hydro Arena in front of a sell-out crowd of 10,000 people.
Brother Jamie Murray, former player Tim Henman, Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov and special guests including Rio Paralympic champion Gordon Reid all took part in the event, which included a series of doubles and singles matches.
The money raised will go to Unicef UK and Young People’s Futures (YPF). Glasgow charity YPF works with young people in Possilpark, one of the most deprived areas in the city. It will spend its donation on a minibus, sports facilities and a caravan to provide respite and holidays for families.
Unicef will use the money to help protect children in emergencies, such as those affected by the crisis in Syria.
Murray said: “It was always really important to me that this event should be for charity and so I’m really pleased we’ve been able to raise a significant amount in our first year.
It is understood Murray plans a repeat in 2017.
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