Twenty four hours later than scheduled, Andy Murray finally had his return to the Centre Court on Saturday night, two years after limping away from the men’s singles quarter final.
He may have been accompanied by the greatest female player of all, but there was a slight feel of Strictly Come Dancing to it all as the dream team took their long-anticipated bow.
Amid all the whooping and cheering, oohs and aahs, there was a mixed doubles tennis match, plenty competitive but with an unmistakeable sense of fun. Murray’s watching mother Judy, a former primetime ballroom contestant, may have found it quite familiar.
Andy Murray and Serena Williams made a fine start to their mixed doubles bid at Wimbledon
Having been postponed from Friday night, it ended with the Scot and the American safely beating Germany’s Andreas Mies and Chile’s Alexa Guarachi 6-4 6-1, marking a doubles success for Williams.
Earlier she had ignited her tournament campaign with the impressive third round dismissal of Julia Goerges. An unusual mixed and singles title double for her looks feasible.
It also rounded off a long and eventful day for Murray, who had suffered a deflating four set loss in the second round of the men’s doubles against sixth seeds Nikola Mektic and Franko Skugar.
Saturday night was less heavy duty, and asked afterwards who was in charge Williams pointed out: ‘We are a team, there’s no ‘I’ in team. Murray responded: ‘We are both younger siblings so we are used to being bossed around.’
The Scot’s movement looked good. ‘My back was a bit stiff after the men’s doubles but it felt good tonight,’ he said. ‘The hip is fine, a few aches and pains elsewhere.’
He was able to shrug off his exit from the men’s event: ‘It’s not a blow really in the grand scheme of things,’ he added. ‘I know you guys were talking about winning the doubles. I was aware that that wasn’t going to be the case most likely. It was a shame because I felt like first couple sets we played well. If we maybe got through that one, could have made a bit of a run.’
It was all in contrast to the 32 year-old Scot’s last visit, which saw him succumb to the hip problems that were to a herald so much frustration and misery.
Andreas Mies (right) and Chile’s Alexa Guarachi (left) were no match for Murray and Williams
Him returning to the scene of so many career highlights fit and healthy guaranteed this to be a happy occasion.
What was clear by the end is that they will be very difficult to beat, assuming that both remain uninjured. Williams’s serve is a match for many of the men and they are both such good returners that it will take an inspired combination to beat them. The show could run and run.
‘I’ll be fine,’ assured Williams. ‘I play doubles a lot, especially in Grand Slams. I’m definitely used to all the matches.’
They had managed only one practice session between them but it did not seem an issue. It could hardly be otherwise with them having won a combined total of sixteen Grand Slams, singles and doubles, on this court plus two gold medals from London 2012.
Having squeezed their large entourages into the player guest area Williams got off to a false start by forgetting to take her accreditation badge off, only removing it after the first two points.
That done, they proceeded to break the serve of recent French Open champion Mies. He was not afraid to pepper his female opponent, who had asked to play in the deuce court.
After being on the same side of the net, one aspect stood out for Murray: ‘The most impressive thing for me is the serve,’ he said. ‘ Just getting free points a lot, which isn’t always the case. In mixed it makes my life at the net a lot easier.’
The opposition were no mugs, even though they almost seemed invisible, given the profile of those across the net. The first set was properly competitive but the German and the Chilean were both broken at the start of the second and Guarachi lost her serve once more for good measure.
Williams fell over during Saturday’s match but the American took it well and was seen smiling
Murray and Williams displayed good on-court chemistry and they regularly shared high-fives
Murray’s appearance at these championships is only one step on a longer journey, and he has suffered worse setbacks of late than his earlier defeat alongside Herbert.
Their collaboration ended when they were beaten 6-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 by the sixth seeded Croatians. A sign of the way that the Herbert-Murray partnership had unwound was that the Scot began by receiving serve on the advantage side, only to switch to the deuce court after things headed south in the third set.
He and Feliciano Lopez had proved a dream team when they won the Fever Tree Championships, but the chemistry was not as good in his subsequent two pairings. At Eastbourne he lost in the first outing with Brazilian Marcelo Melo, while here with Herbert they enjoyed just one win together when they played the first round on Thursday evening.
The omens were possibly not good when it emerged during Queen’s that Herbert’s regular partner, Nicolas Mahut, was unhappy to hear that his compatriot had reversed his decision not to play in doubles until the US Open at the end of the summer.
Then during Eastbourne last week Herbert strained a thigh muscle and slightly aggravated it after arriving at the All England Club to practice.
After this tournament Murray will decide how to proceed on the next stage of his comeback. You doubt after recent weeks, with all the hanging around and being shunted about, whether he will long for a future being a doubles specialist, however happy he has been to return to the court.
Williams stretched as she struck a volley at the net while Murray watched on behind her