Mixed triumph for Jamie at US Open
Jamie Murray landed his fifth Grand Slam title on Saturday at the US Open when he and Swiss star Martina Hingis defeated Michael Venus and Hao-Ching Chan 6-1, 4-6, 10-8 in the mixed doubles final.
The win was their second Slam in a row following success at Wimbledon earlier in the summer and means the duo are still unbeaten in 10 matches since they joined forces at SW19 in July.
It was Murray’s third mixed doubles title in total, adding to his maiden triumph at Wimbledon in 2007 with Jelena Jankovic, and he became the first British man to win the US Open mixed doubles title since Peter Curtis in 1968.
“We had a great run,”he said afterwards.“We played a great tie-break and the crowd was really into it. There was a lot of noise, some crazy rallies going on. For us, it’s so much fun to go there and play in a huge stadium, with a lot of people coming out to watch.
“It’s been a lot of fun for me. A great opportunity for me to compete with Martina. She’s such a great player and a huge champion of the game. It’s been a lot of fun. Every time we are on court, we get a lot of people coming out to watch us, a lot of people supporting us. It makes it fun to play.
“Like I said before, that’s what we enjoy most about playing tennis, playing in front of a lot of people. That’s where the enjoyment is, trying to put on a good show and play good tennis.”
Top seeds Murray and Hingis strolled through the first set to win it 6-1 and a quick victory looked on the cards. But Kiwi Venus and Taipei’s Chan hit back in the second set, converting a break at 4-4 to claim the set.
Murray and Hingis failed to drop a set at Wimbledon but had a harder time at Flushing Meadows with two out of their four matches before the final going to a match tiebreak.
Both teams held to open the deciding tiebreak, changing over at 3-3 and again at 6-6. Hingis and Murray finally took control and Murray finished them off with an overhead smash for victory.
●Gordon Reid took the wheelchair men’s doubles title with partner Alfie Hewett at the US Open.
Reid, who trains at Stirling University, lost to Hewett in the singles semi-final but the duo joined forces to defeat the French pairing of Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer 7-5 6-4 in the final.