Jamie Murray dumped out of Australian Open mixed event by men's doubles partner
Wednesday 27 January 2016 11:45, UK
Jamie Murray suffered an awkward defeat at the Australian Open on Wednesday after losing in the mixed doubles quarter-finals to his men's doubles partner.
The brother of Andy, who eased into the last four in Melbourne in the singles, produced a battling performance with new partner Bruno Soares in beating Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram to make Thursday's men's semi-final.
However, the day before the pair face that big test they had to go head-to-head in the mixed event and it was the Brazilian who took the bragging rights.
Soares and Russian Elena Vesnina had few problems in conquering Murray and Slovenian Katerina Srebotnik 6-2 6-3 in 54 minutes.
Murray's only Grand Slam title was won in the mixed doubles in 2007 at Wimbledon with Serb Jelena Jankovic.
Scotland's Murray and Soares are the seventh seeds in the men's doubles and they will now meet French pair Adrian Mannarino and Lucas Pouille for a place in Sunday's final.
On facing France's Mannarino and Pouille, Murray said: "I've never played Pouille and I've only played Mannarino once before, so our coach Louis [Cayer] was out watching most of the matches.
"It's a great opportunity for us to get to the final. Nobody would have thought that they would have been in the semi finals at the start of the tournament but they're two good players.
"It's going to be a tough match, they've beaten a lot of good teams along the way. They're obviously playing well and doing things right. But we know we've got a great chance to win."
