Murray calls for doubles shake-up at Wimbledon

Singles and doubles have become almost different sports in terms of the players who compete, with few of the leading singles players also committing themselves to doubles.

It is especially hard at Wimbledon, with the doubles tournament, uniquely among the slams, also being played over best of five sets.

Murray said: "Beforehand you had a lot more of the top singles players that were playing the doubles. Like when (John) McEnroe was playing, around that time.

"A lot of the top doubles teams, they were pretty well known, like the Woodies (Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde) and stuff. I grew up kind of watching quite a bit of doubles myself, too.

"I think when the top singles players are involved in the doubles, it does draw a little bit more attention to it. That's something that I think will be a positive thing for tennis, if more guys were playing doubles.

"But here it's difficult because of the format, the best-of-five sets. For me, even though I'm playing doubles here, it's even a consideration if I'm going to play mixed, as well. I would never expect a top singles player to enter the doubles here because playing potentially 10 sets in one day is just too much.

"That's something that maybe would be worth looking at, to give more value to the doubles event, to get more of the top singles players playing, is to reduce the length of the matches a bit."

It will be a different Wimbledon experience for Murray this year, with the former world number one having to wait until Wednesday at the earliest to get his campaign under way.

And Murray, known as an obsessive follower of tennis, revealed he has mostly stayed away from the sport while he has been working his way back from surgery.

"I haven't really hardly watched any tennis in the last 12 months" he said. "Since the operation I had in January, I literally didn't watch anything hardly at all.

"When you're around the event, there's matches on the TV. I wouldn't sit from the first point of a match and watch a best-of-five-set match because it can be four hours of the day. I'm here to do stuff. I want to be with my family and things. I'll watch bits and pieces of it."

Murray had a remarkably successful first outing as a doubles player at Queen's Club, winning the title last weekend with Feliciano Lopez, before a first-round loss at Eastbourne alongside Marcelo Melo.

He admitted his first practice with Herbert, who has won all four slam titles alongside countryman Nicolas Mahut, on Friday did not go particularly well and, although he would love to challenge for another Wimbledon title, he will not be putting too much pressure on himself.

The Scot said: "I think that's probably one of the things that I will try to make sure doesn't change over the next few years. I think a lot of that stuff kind of comes out from other people. I'm just happy to be playing tennis again really.

"I would like to do well when I get on the court. I play to win. I'm really competitive. But four or five weeks ago I didn't know if I'd even be playing over the grass. I shouldn't be expecting too much."

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