Saturday 18 November 2017 20:23, UK
Britain's Jamie Murray and his partner Bruno Soares missed out on a maiden final appearance at the ATP Finals.
The duo were defeated by defending champions Henri Kontinen and John Peers 7-6(2) 6-2 to bow out at the semi-final stage for the second year running.
Murray and Brazilian Soares would regret passing up an early break point, the only sniff of a chance in a first set which otherwise belonged to the servers.
That was until Soares served at 5-6 and promptly found he and Murray staring down the barrel at 0-40, before they recovered to force a tie-break.
However, a couple of swings of Kontinen's forehand gave them the advantage and when Soares sent a forehand wide the set had slipped away.
That blow was magnified when Murray lost the first service game of the second set while at the other end, Kontinen and Peers - Murray's former partner - were giving nothing away on their serve.
And when Soares was broken for 5-2, Kontinen, who won the Wimbledon mixed doubles alongside Britain's Heather Watson last year, served out for the match.
The season-ending extravaganza ATP Finals at London's O2 in November ends another memorable year which will be covered via our website www.skysports.com/tennis with live blogs and updates as the season reaches its climax.
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