Doubles Only Tennis Podcast

Murphy Jensen Interview: Knocking on Death's Door

• Will Boucek • Episode 178

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Murphy Jensen is the 1993 French Open doubles champion, tennis coach, cardiac arrest survivor, mental health advocate, keynote speaker, co-founder of WEconnect, TV host, and the most impactful guest we've ever had on the Doubles Only Podcast.

This episode is not about doubles. It's far more important.

Murphy suffered from depression and addiction while on tour, considered taking his own life, and was saved by a hotel manager. Decades later he fell on the tennis court and didn't breathe on his own for 18 minutes. Today, he lives in Austin, Texas, still plays tennis, and helps others suffering from mental health problems.

I hope you'll listen and share this episode so Murphy's message can reach as many people as possible.

Learn more about Murphy on his website.

See the shownotes for this episode here: https://www.thetennistribe.com/murphy-jensen-interview/

If you are struggling with any mental health issues, please seek professional help. Here is the National Mental Health Hotline and Suicide & Crisis Lifeline:
https://mentalhealthhotline.org/
https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/988

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Murphy Jensen

Speaker 1

Hey y'all, before we get to today's episode, just a quick thank you to everyone who enrolled in the Mental Game Masterclass. We launched it over the last week. It is still available, but not at a discounted price anymore. So thanks to everybody who enrolled, thanks to everybody who shared it and has supported and given me really great feedback on it so far. Today I'm going to share an episode with you that was recorded a couple of months ago. I recorded this at the ATX Open and we sat down for about 20 minutes with Murphy Jensen. Hanlon Walsh joins me for this one as well.

Speaker 1

Murphy, if you're not familiar with the name, is certainly one of the most famous doubles players of all time. He won the French Open in 1993 alongside his brother, luke, who I had on the podcast a long time ago back in 2020, I believe, or maybe 2021. And in this conversation with Murphy we don't really talk a whole lot about doubles, because Murphy has a story that is way, way more important than anything that really happens on the tennis court. He really was at the peak of his game in 93 at the French Open and he talks about how he was suffering from depression and addiction in his years on tour and how a hotel manager saved his life and then, several decades later, he actually was on the tennis court playing obviously retired tennis court playing obviously retired and he had a cardiac event and fell over on the court and his heart stopped for 18 minutes. So he is really knocked on death's door a few times and he talks about dealing with depression, dealing with addiction and then a little bit about doubles as well. So this is a topic that obviously isn't going to help your doubles game a whole lot, but it's really going to make your life better and if you know somebody who's suffering from some of this stuff, or if you are yourself, then hopefully some of these words from Murphy can help you.

Speaker 1

So I really, really wanted to get this out there because obviously it's a very, very important message. So, without further delay, enjoy this conversation with Murphy Jensen. All right, we're here at the ATX Open with Murphy Jensen, the French Open champion from 1993, a cardiac arrest survivor, mental health advocate, co-founder of we connect. Actor speaker. I would call you probably, uh, keynote speaker. Keynote speaker, and are you an author? I didn't find that, but I feel like you probably should.

Speaker 2

I've been writing for the past four or five years soon to be.

Speaker 1

Add that to the uh, the resume.

Speaker 2

There's a really neat documentary film that's been shot that started off as a full-length feature called Born to Serve and it's telling the Jensen Brothers story and, more specifically, my story and overcoming mental health challenges and addiction, substance, substance use disorder, and and then I dropped dead on a tennis court and the next thing you know, it becomes a three-part series. Yeah, where, uh, once again I knock on death, death's door, and but I'm, I get to be here with you and watch some more doubles.

Speaker 1

That's right. Yeah, I was looking at the documentary on your website. It still says coming in 2022, right now.

Speaker 2

So you got to get that changed, the updates, the cost of updating these websites. The years go faster than my. Uh, my talent, uh, we can talk about it after.

Speaker 1

I'm good with the websites, I'll get it I'll get it fixed for you.

Speaker 1

Yeah, amazing um, but I wanted to start with that actually, um, this is obviously a doubles podcast and I want to get into tennis a little bit, but, um, you know, this topic obviously is much bigger and more important than tennis. So one of the quotes from your website said I shut out the whole world, friends, family, anybody that cared about me. I was in a hotel room on Sunset Strip. Instead of the manager of this hotel calling the police, he luckily called an interventionist. So tell people the story.

Speaker 2

Well, it was 19. I have to take it back to winning the French Open. Anybody, and everybody in the world of tennis, would take a look at that and say, awesome, what an accomplishment, congratulations. I found myself in a totally different space. I had my first panic attack. I started throwing up and handshaking uncontrollably.

Speaker 2

I didn't know what was wrong with me and in that moment my insides did not match my outsides. On the outside, all of our family's dreams had come true. We had won a major, we were the best in the world in that moment. But my insides and my head was really in a state of panic and fear of what was to come and what came with it all. And I think I was Um, and what came with it all, and I think I was myself knew, uh, that I wasn't prepared for the next seven, eight, nine years, which was rock and roll tennis, stadium court attraction, um, the Jensen brothers riding Harleys, playing guitars, selling tickets, this business commodity. You know this brand of tennis I was just not ready for.

Speaker 2

I had the tools to navigate that, and so I started isolating on the tour and, you know, basically just locking myself in the hotel rooms until match time and putting on a smile when I had to go out there and do stuff and that's just my truth and I share it not from a place of self-service, it's actually from a place of healing.

Speaker 2

And you know, over the next, from that French Open to the 1999 US Open, where I was connected, instead of with the police, with an interventionist I was at a jumping off point with the birth of my first son, billy interventionist. I was at a jumping off point with the birth of my first son, billy, while playing the 1999 US Open and I looked out of a 30th floor window and I considered jumping out of that window and, by the grace of God, there was a knock at my door in Los Angeles a couple of weeks later and I went through a psych ward and detox and I got help and it saved my life and what I thought was the worst thing that could have happened to me actually was the beginning. What I thought was the end of my life was just the beginning of finding out who I am, why I'm here and who walks with me, and pretty heavy for a tennis podcast it is.

Speaker 1

It's the heaviest we've gotten on the podcast, but unless you've got aliens listening in.

Speaker 2

I, we all, uh, are humans and and and it's so funny we get nervous. On a tennis court, you lose a match you really want to do well and play well in. You've just hit a low-grade level of depression. You're bummed out. You come to these pro tournaments. I mean only one person or one doubles team is going to be psyched by Sunday. Everybody else will be like, oh, I'm done, but they got beat and they're bummed. And how do we navigate being bummed? How do we navigate being stoked? How do we navigate? And that's become my life's work not by purpose, but by divine intervention, for lack of a better expression.

Speaker 1

What would you say to somebody listening maybe, who's struggling a little bit themselves with addiction or depression, or somebody who's listening who knows someone else who is struggling with that?

Speaker 2

I just number one. I would like them to know that I love them and they're lovable and they're worthy and they're cared for, in spite of what their head's telling them. A lot of times I found myself running away from a reality I wasn't even in. I was creating. You know, my head was telling me one thing I would say number one is to find a safe place, a safe person to share what's actually going on. I think what I share with people I get calls every day is number one. I ask them to put their arms around themselves and give themselves a hug, and I can't imagine being in their shoes. I've been in my shoes, but I can't imagine being in your shoes, or your shoes or their shoes, and the first step would be just the fact that I was on the phone with someone or speaking to someone.

Speaker 2

You know the process of my recovery has been, you know, a relationship with myself and learning how to love myself and learning how to forgive myself, and learning how to forgive myself and learning how to uh, because I wasn't capable of receiving something I couldn't from anyone else or the world around me unless I was able to give it to myself. Um, I could be the greatest thing since life spread. But if I had a head that thought I sucked at it on every corner. It's really hard, it doesn't add up. So you know, call me If you find yourself in the weeds. Give Murphy Jensen a call. You know you're not alone. You're not alone. You're not alone, you're not alone. I think that's what really saved me was the fact that my circumstances and my problems or my challenges were not unique. I wasn't the only one. But I have found that this is the challenges I face has been a disease of isolation and I was only as sick as my secrets and I developed the tools over time to be able to share what's really going on. No therapist and no self-help book was able to help me with my mental health challenges or my not saying that they don't serve a purpose, but in early recovery, no Self-Help book could help me with that stuff. It was actually someone with lived experience. And how do you explain the unexplainable? You have to experience it and it's kind of like folks that come back from the Gulf War or whatever PTSD. It's other relatable people that were able for me to hear. It's like, geez, you know and you're doing what today and you've overcome this stuff and it gave me hope. It gave me hope and early recovery and if I am able to give anybody any ounce of hope, I know undeniably that from personal experience that these issues are treatable. These issues are preventable Anxiety, depression, you name it.

Speaker 2

So I think the biggest thing is having the willingness to try it a different way and take direction. Willingness is a value that I. Willingness, honesty, open-mindedness are monster principles. That serves me today but really served me in early recovery. I had to be willing to do things that didn't make sense to me and I was really afraid of being found out. Most employers have an employee assistance program or free therapy sessions and things like that. My job was on TV and just recently one of the greatest players in our game raised their hand and said they were having mental health issues and she was levied a fine.

Speaker 2

And you know the unfortunate situation that this world faces today is that the first or second leading cause of death for children ages 13 to 30 is suicide, is suicide. So you know this is not a joke and if I'm a mom or a dad, they're scared to death. You know I'm a dad of two boys and I can't imagine how scared moms and dads are out there, not to mention the child that's going through what they're going through, or the adult that's going through what they're going through, or the adult that's going through what they're going through. And covid has poured gas on that fire of mental, mental health issues. Because we were forced to isolate, we were forced to lock down, we were forced to disconnect, and the opposite of addiction, I've learned, is connection, and it's that familiarity with another human being that Back to aloneness. I think the Surgeon General recently released a study that loneliness is the number one cause of mental health challenges right now.

The Beauty of Tennis Doubles

Speaker 2

Know what it's like to be down 60, 50, 40, love in the game of life and think there's no way out. Yet I've found a way out and I know that I've had a funny life man. I've been called a miracle, you know, from the cardiac arrest. You know I dropped dead on a tennis court. I've seen miracles and I'm not like some weird dude that you know, and you're hearing that from someone with the clarity of mind of anyone you're ever going to meet. You know I put nothing in my body that's going to change me from the neck up. You know, and I've seen some unbelievable success stories and comeback stories that are just impossible to imagine, people that were living in dumpsters that are now CEOs of major institutions and I'm living proof that the impossible is possible. That's awesome. Thanks, man.

Speaker 3

Well, tennis is such a lonely sport as it is and you talked about, you know, naomi Osaka and her mental health struggles Over the past year. We've talked to several players, including Danielle Collins Last year. We had a really good conversation with her and she talked about how lonely the single circuit can be, but then she won the doubles tournament in Charleston that week and she said that doubles is such a great mental health release for her to play with friends and just clear her mind and less pressure, lower stakes. So I wanted to get your thoughts on that and do you feel like that's a selling point, you know, to promote the doubles game?

Speaker 2

Well, yeah, doubles is not only, uh, a ton of fun because you're sharing the experience, you're sharing the highs and lows. I, uh, it's a not take it to the next level, but I'd be dead if it wasn't for my brother, you know, I mean it don't get more next level. It's like I had my brother in arms and our moniker on our Adidas clothing line, the Jensen Brothers clothing line, was Till Death, do Us Part. And that man wasn't only my doubles partner and best friend, but he saved my life and in so many ways, like you know, he could have turned the other way, found a different partner so many times, even before my struggles, but he just had faith in me.

Speaker 2

We were on a losing streak the year we won the French and he said, you know? And I told him to look for a different partner. Going into Rome after Hamburg, we lost maybe 10, 11 weeks in a row. And he said, buddy, I believe in you and your ability. I don't care what happens, we will. If we drop to a thousand in the world, we will keep fighting. And it was so funny, it wasn't my tennis that was getting in my way, it was my head. And the next week after he took the weight of the pressure off me, saying I'm your doubles partner and I'm your brother, but we've got this, you've got what it takes, and that next week we made the semis of Rome, finals of Bologna, and won the French, and I was ready to walk away from the game.

Speaker 2

And that's what's really cool about the game of dubs is that you're out there together and and, and it's really it's relational, you know it's about, and it's not just like hey, two hot players don't necessarily mean you're going to be any good doubles. You need people that compliment you physically, compliment you mentally, compliment. You know, maybe your styles of play Like two baseliners aren't going to be as good as like someone. You can see it here at any pro tennis tournament or even a 3-5 tournament. You need kind of the right combo, the right communication combo. You want someone you can party with and cry with and eat with.

Speaker 2

You've seen it the best ones. You look at those Brian bros. They're like clone dudes but yet they're so different at the same time. And yeah, dubs is a special animal and it is a lonely sport. But I can tell you that from my experience, going back a step and moving forward, that tennis is a game of second chances and you know, speaking to everything, I should probably incorporate doubles into my story, because the success I've had since tennis is a direct result of not I but we. We can accomplish what I can't. That's really been the underlying theme of my life today. That's great.

Speaker 1

Two more minutes, is that okay, okay?

Speaker 2

There's a second interview. Oh great, Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you Last question for you, last question. Great, thank you. Thank you. Last question for you. Last question. I know you got to run. This will be an easy one. It'll be a very quick, short answer. No, how do we make doubles more popular?

Speaker 2

How do we make doubles more popular? I could be wrong, but I still think on the club level, doubles is the most popular. I'm pretty sure it is To play. The people that pay for tennis. They're not getting paid to play tennis. Play more doubles, that's just a fact. I think it's true. And so to make it more popular, you get. You know, rafael Nadal has won Indian Wells, I think, three or four times in doubles, maybe more. I mean. What people don't know is I think if you've got more singles players playing doubles, you're going to make them more popular on TV. But to make them more popular, oh jeez, there's a lot of ways. I can go with that one. I've got a part two.

The Importance of Doubles Tennis

Speaker 1

We can do a round two, yeah, part two.

Speaker 2

We're going to find out what we can do to make doubles more popular. And it's really funny. I play I'm playing as much tennis now at 55 years old and obsessed with it and enjoying it as much, if not more, than I've ever enjoyed it in my life. Every little nuance and nook and cranny of the game and what's helping me play better doubles is I'm actually playing more singles, I'm incorporating some single stuff. You know what makes doubles great's? It's it's a party man.

Speaker 2

You know doubles is a party and and when you have two teams playing at a high level or playing the best, whatever their level is, three, five, five, oh, if they are two teams maximizing their talent set, it is like fireworks out there and it's hilarious because it'll be a shank winner that will determine the outcome of the match, which it's a bummer to the losing side. But I don't think popularity-wise for the people that pay for tennis and play tennis and love tennis, just love the yellow tennis ball or the fuzzy tennis ball or the tennis ball. I mean I recommend to everybody to start with doubles. You know I say that should be. I think high school tennis is just drop singles and just play doubles and then have a singles flight. You know, do both, but the baseline should be doubles, because that's where you're going to get hooked, is by playing with other people. And then you know it's not football where you need 11 people on either side, it's just a couple of folks and a good time.

Speaker 1

Yeah, absolutely so. Hopefully we can talk more about that in round two and dive into some strategy too. Thanks a ton, murphy, for coming, appreciate it.

Speaker 2

I had a privilege.