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Jamie Murray, Leon Smith awarded OBEs

Ros Satar
Tennis

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By Ros Satar

  • Jamie Murray receives an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for his services to tennis and to charity
  • Leon Smith, Captain of the Team GB Davis Cup team also receives an OBE for his services to tennis.

LONDON, UK – Jamie Murray continued a year of landmarks, adding an OBE to his accolades, together with his first Slam title in Australia and the ultimate career high doubles ranking of World No. 1 in April.

That alone assured the 30-year-old Brit his place for a third consecutive Olympic Games, where he will team up with brother Andy Murray, who received his OBE (or to give the award its full title, Officer of the Order of the British Empire), after winning the London 2012 Olympic Games and US Open 2012 in the 2013 New Year Honours list for his services to tennis.

Murray the elder, and his Colombian wife Alejandra are also prolific supporters of the charity Children Change Colombia, after seeing children living in extreme poverty in their trips to the country. The charity defends children’s rights and focuses on keeping them safe, helping those that are most vulnerable.

Murray only found out he had been give the award after sifting through his post after another long stint on the tour, telling BBC Sport:

“For some reason I just knew straight away what it was going to be. It’s a real honour to receive it and I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved over the past year, especially the Davis Cup. It was a huge thing for the team and the country.”

The Murray brothers not only combined throughout their campaign last year to help Britain to a classic Davis Cup victory, but in this past year, Murray’s confidence on court visibly grew, borne out by his reaching two Grand Slam finals last year (Wimbledon, US Open 2015 with John Peers) before winning his first Slam with new partner Bruno Soares at the Australian Open.

Leon Smith helped guide a struggling GB team from the very doldrums of the third tier of the Davis Cup competition without one his star players and we witnessed at times some remarkable performances from James Ward, and Dan Evans en route to their historic win.

Murray and Soares will be the second seeds at the forthcoming Aegon Championships at Queen’s Club, London, which begins on 13 June.