Thursday 8 September 2016 23:52, UK
Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares have reached the men's doubles final of the US Open.
Murray and Brazilian Soares won their first major title at the Australian Open in January and now have the chance for a second after beating French pair Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert 7-5 4-6 6-3.
It will be Murray's fourth Grand Slam doubles final in 18 months after the Scot was a runner-up at both Flushing Meadows and Wimbledon last year.
Murray lost out to the same pair alongside John Peers in the final in New York 12 months ago but he and Soares were too good for the defending champions on the new Grandstand court.
They will now meet one of two Spanish pairs, either Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez or Pablo Carreno Busta and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, in the final on Saturday.
"What have I learned from last year? Don't lose, it's not much fun to lose in finals," Murray said.
"We've had a great tournament so far, we've won five matches, one more to go, we'll give it our best and it'll be the end to a great week I think."
"I'm very proud," Soares added.
"They are a very tough team, the defending champions, number one in the race, won so many tournaments, amazing level, but I thought we did extremely well.
"We served well and played really good under pressure, which at this stage of the tournament is really important."
The British-Brazilian duo snatched the first break of the match at 5-5 in the opening set, as Mahut dropped his serve and Soares held with an emphatic smash.
Soares came under pressure in the second set at 3-4 but saved three break points, only for Murray to double fault at 4-5 and the French pair forced a decider.
Murray then appeared to express irritation at the time his opponents were taking to serve and he complained to umpire Marija Cicak, the same official who had so irked his brother Andy in the singles quarter-final less than 24 hours before.
The Briton recovered his focus, however, converting a break point with a crisp forehand volley after Mahut had double faulted at 2-2.
Herbert was serving to stay in the contest at 3-5 but he also wavered, as another punching Murray volley converted their fourth match point and sealed progress after exactly two hours.
