There are only seven days to go until the much-anticipated Schroders Battle of the Brits – Scotland v England tennis showdown at P&J Live in Aberdeen.
To mark the one-week-to-go milestone, event director and Team Scotland hero Jamie Murray writes exclusively for The Press and Journal, revealing when the racquet stars – including his brother Sir Andy Murray – will fly in, when and where they will practise, and why he thinks the underdog Scots will need to harness the energy of a home crowd to win in the Granite City.
After two years of work, Battle of the Brits – Scotland v England is days away
A week today Schroders Battle of the Brits – Scotland v England will finally get underway in front of tennis fans at Aberdeen’s P&J Live arena.
Having waited two years for the event, I’m feeling a mix of stress and excitement knowing we are now only days away from taking to the court in the north-east.
After the devastating disappointment of postponing last year, and the extra work to get everything rearranged for Wednesday, December 21 and Thursday, December 22 this year, it did feel like we had lost a bit of the momentum.
However, the last few months have been busy for myself and the Battle of the Brits team, with all the logistics, making sure the players know the finer details, promotion in the media and so on, and it has felt like things have all been building up to next week nicely.
If the Battle of the Brits (and my own) social media mentions are anything to go by, it certainly seems like the tennis fans who have bought tickets to come along are just as ready!
Although postponing just four days out last year was horrendous, 12 months on, people seem to be much more comfortable going out to big events like this, which will also be shown live on the BBC iPlayer and via TennisChannel.app
Straight from Florida to Aberdeen, with venue to prepare before other players jet in from global camps
I’m in Florida at the moment, and we’re flying back on Sunday straight to Aberdeen.
My mother-in-law lives in Boca Raton, so we always come out and spend a bit of time with her, which also lets me do my pre-season stuff in the warm weather.
The Schroders Battle of the Brits – Scotland v England staff get access to P&J Live on Monday, and Monday and Tuesday will be all about the build.
Over the last 2 years the @BattleofTheBrit community project has introduced kids to tennis across Scotland 🏴 @AlbynSchool is one of the many schools we’ve visited along the way with @JudyMurray and the support of @BrodiesLLP 🎾#tennis #Aberdeen pic.twitter.com/qg9rbuJN0C
— Jamie Murray (@jamie_murray) December 10, 2022
The court is the most important thing and takes the most time, but there will also be all of the behind-the-scenes stuff, too – including team rooms, the gym, the family room, and the VIP hospitality lounge at the venue, and making sure hotel rooms, including for the players, are ready.
There’s also the fan zone to construct at P&J Live. I hope people can get down early and experience it, as there will be loads of stuff based on my mum’s vital work to grow the game, including tennis tasters and competitions.
Tuesday is probably the day where I’ll actually be able to get some on-court practice in with the Scottish guys.
Team England will be there as well, but we’ll need to make sure there’s a curtain up as we don’t want them gaining an edge over us!
Before this, there will be some pre-event media duties for all the players after they touchdown at about noon on Tuesday. They will be speaking to journalists, as well as doing some filming for the screens around the arena when the action starts the following day.
The other players are also flying in from pre-season camps around the world for Battle of the Brits.
Andy was in Florida for three weeks, based about 45 minutes south of me. We didn’t practise together, but he came up to see us before he went home a couple of days ago.
Paul Jubb and Jack Draper are also in the Sunshine State, training at the IMG Academy (formerly the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy).
Dan Evans is based in Dubai now, but is coming back just for the event in Aberdeen, before then heading out to Australia – which is a great effort from him.
Scotland and England players will be looking to lay down 2023 marker
At the end of the day, we’re all going out there on court at P&J Live for a couple of days to put on the best show we can, but England may be going in as slight favourites.
Evo and Jack are ranked higher than Andy, and Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski are number one and two in the world in the doubles – so they’ve got a really strong team.
But we will have the Scottish crowd, while Andy’s had a good pre-season under his belt and is playing well.
This is a chance for us to all see where we are at coming out of the off-season. It is an opportunity to represent our countries, and test ourselves against our peers before heading to Australia for the start of the new season at the start of 2023.
We’ll all be right up for winning and laying down a marker for the months to come.
In terms of next year, I’m going to be playing doubles with New Zealand’s Michael Venus after my long-time partner Bruno Soares retired earlier in 2022.
Mike lives in London, so it should be a good setup, as he’s a really easy-going, tennis-daft guy. He has been top-10 and top-20 in the world for quite a few years now, so is also a really good player.
I’m excited to hopefully get off to a good start in the new year and get on a bit of a roll – and a confidence-boosting Scotland win at Battle of the Brits could only help me achieve this.
Tickets for Battle of the Brits – Scotland v England in Aberdeen
For Schroders Battle of the Brits – Scotland versus England tickets ahead of the event on December 21 and 22, click here.
The tennis action will be spread across three sessions, with two-time Wimbledon champion, US Open winner and double Olympic gold medallist Sir Andy Murray playing in every session.
You can find the full order of play here.
There are still tickets available – around 400 for both the Wednesday evening and Thursday afternoon sessions, although the Thursday evening finale is now sold out with only returns available.