Wimbledon: Murray and Serena make winning start

Andy Murray was happy he ended his Centre Court exile with Serena Williams at his side as Wimbledon’s new power couple got their mixed doubles pairing off to a flying start.

The former world No.1 was back on his favourite court 724 days after he hobbled off in 2017, and he and the 23-time Grand Slam winner beat Andreas Mies and Alexa Guarachi 6-4 6-1 in their debut outing on Saturday.

These two are used to winning on Centre Court – they have claimed nine singles titles between them – and they proved that no matter how new the partnership, old habits die hard.

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“For me it was a great experience being back on Centre Court with Serena after the last year or so being tough. It was nice. I enjoyed it,” the Scot said.

“I think like towards the end of the match when you’re kind of in control on the scoreboard, it’s easier to sort of relax and enjoy it, whereas the first set, we were obviously taking it seriously to win.”

Well that was fun… ???????? #SerAndy pic.twitter.com/OOJvo6WUms

— Andy Murray (@andy_murray) July 6, 2019

Never has a mixed-doubles partnership received so much attention, but it did not disappoint as Williams’ baseline power and Murray’s guile at the net means they will be a real force in this discipline.

Williams admitted that she was feeling nervous beforehand, perhaps which accounts for her playing the first two points of the match with her accreditation lanyard around her neck, but the American performed better than she expected.

“I didn’t even want to be in it, I kind of just wanted to watch it. Maybe I’ll try to get a video of it or watch it somewhere,” she said.

“Overall, I think I was able to handle my nerves pretty good, do better than I thought I was going to do.

“It’s definitely awesome to share a court with Andy, especially this particular stage. Like I said, whenever you’re a grand-slam winner, you always learn something.

“But, yeah, we are still young in our relationship on the court. We still have a lot to learn.”