JAMIE MURRAY was asked if he would play a role in helping bolster his brother's spirits. Maybe, he answered but looking at his face it was obvious that he was in need of his own pick-me-up.
Having lost out in the first round of the men's doubles earlier in the tournament, he followed his brother on to Centre Court on Friday night. Another Murray, another semi-final, this time in the mixed doubles. It ended in another Murray exit.
But
while Andy can take comfort in a splendid season which has seen him rise in the rankings and in the eyes of his peers, the senior sibling has had a complete reversal of those fortunes.
He has dropped down the rankings and now faces a tough journey back, via the challengers, to get to the level he had been at a couple of years ago. How he would love his brother's kind of woes.
"For Andy to be in the semi-final was a big thing and it was a first for him as well so let's not forget that. The media built it up but he still had to go out and beat Andy Roddick and it's not as if he is going to beat him every time they play. It's disappointing neither of us were able to win but there was always a chance that could happen."
Jamie watched the family singles specialist as he prepared for his own game and said that while Andy would be sorry to lose, it was not in his nature to be down for long.
"Every Grand Slam that he goes into for the next few years he'll be one of the favourites to do well and the US Open coming up will be no different after his great run last year.
"I think with tennis there's always another tournament so he won't be in the doldrums forever. He will be looking forward to the next tournament and getting out and playing great tennis again. Just because he lost one match doesn't mean he is rubbish! He is number three in the world and he has improved on his performance last year so he will take that as a positive.
"He puts a lot of pressure on himself to get to the final and I think in our country, if you are a British player and you are ranked as highly as he is then there will be focus on you, especially at Wimbledon because in our country these two weeks are what tennis is but you have to deal with it.
"It's the first time he has made the semi-finals at Wimbledon and he will think he had a great chance to get to the final but that happens in sport. There's got to be a winner and a loser and unfortunately he lost his match but he will come back and I'm sure he will have many more opportunities in the future to win grand slam titles."
He would love to have that same sense of optimism when discussing his own game but at the moment, while he knows what he needs to do to get things back on track, knowing and implementing are proving themselves two different things.
"Things just haven't been going so well and now it's a case of just going out and doing it.
It was two years ago that I won (the Wimbledon mixed doubles] and it was great to win but it's not really where I want to be aiming for. I want to be improving in my men's doubles and doing well in the Grand Slams which I haven't done at all. My record has been pretty poor. I want to improve my game."
First he has to find a new partner. He joined up with Jonathan Elrich of Israel on grass but will now ponder what is best for the future.
"I don't know (what's next]. I need to work out a schedule and I need to find someone to play with so that I can get a bit of direction over the next few months and hopefully get a bit of a run between now and the end of the year."
That would be the best way to put a smile back on his face and bolster those spirits.
