Jamie Murray is splitting with fellow Brit Neal Skupski and teaming up with Bruno Soares for the second time. The Brazilian has split with Croatian Mate Pavic. Murray and Soares won the Australian and US Open titles together in 2016
Friday 20 November 2020 16:41, UK
Bruno Soares believes he can win more Grand Slam titles with Jamie Murray after agreeing to rekindle their partnership.
Murray and Soares lifted the Australian Open and US Open trophies in 2016 and won eight further titles together before splitting last spring at the behest of the Scot.
Murray switched to playing with fellow Briton Neal Skupski but they have not had the success he would have hoped for, narrowly missing out on qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals this year.
By contrast, Soares and Croatian Mate Pavic have been hugely successful, winning the US Open in September and climbing to the top of the team rankings.
It therefore came as a surprise and disappointment to Brazilian Soares last week when Pavic revealed he wanted to end the partnership to play with his fellow Croatian Nikola Mektic.
Soares said: "Mate came to me at the end of last week and decided that he wanted to split and he had different plans for 2021. Jamie found out the news, came to talk to me and find out my plans.
"To be honest I didn't really have any plans because I was trying to focus on the tournament here. It seemed to me a great idea. I really like Jamie as a person, as a player. We had a lot of success together. I think we're both more
experienced, more mature now. I'm really looking forward for next year."
Murray and Soares held an awkward press conference together after their split was revealed during the French Open last year but the Brazilian insisted there were no hard feelings.
"It's like a marriage," he said. "At the end sometimes, the routine, it just gets to you. Jamie needed a change. I appreciate him because he was always very honest about it and when he came to talk to me I completely understood.
"For me, first thing you've got to be happy on court, and if you're not really feeling happy, you've got to do something to be happy, and he felt that the change was necessary. We were still playing great tennis."
Soares sees no reason why he and Murray cannot pick up where they left off and is eyeing more major titles alongside the Scot.
The 38-year-old said: "I think the advantage we have is, with a lot of teams changing for next season, we are not really a change. We know each other extremely well and I don't think it's going to take long for us to click.
"We dream about winning those tournaments as a kid and that's what I want to keep on trying to do. Me and Jamie, we've done that before, so I really trust we can do it again."
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