JOY OF SIX FOR JAMIE

Murray triumph at Flushing Meadows

Jamie Murray landed his sixth Grand Slam tennis title on Saturday when he and American Bethanie Mattek-Sands defeated Nikola Mektic and Alicja Rosolska 2-6, 6-3, 11-9 to triumph in Flushing Meadows for the second straight year.

The Dunblane star, who lifted the trophy with Martina Hingis last year, and Mattek-Sands trailed 1-4 in the championship tie-break to the Croatian/Polish pairing before converting their fourth championship point to lift the trophy.

It’s the 32 year-old’s fourth mixed doubles Grand Slam title and sixth overall, with two men’s doubles successes alongside Bruno Soares at the 2016 Australian Open and US Open.

Mattek-Sands, a five-time women’s doubles Grand Slam champion and three-time mixed doubles major winner, lifted her eighth Grand Slam crown and is a far cry from her Wimbledon 2017 showing when she dislocated her right kneecap and ruptured her patella tendon.

Jamie and Bethanie had tough matches in the quarter-final and semi-final, coming through both of them in championship tie-breaks and it looked like their difficult path to the final had caught up with them when they surrendered the first set 6-2, losing their serve twice.

Back they came in the second and one solitary break of serve was enough to clinch it and take it into a third championship tiebreak in a row for the Murray/ Mattek-Sands partnership.

It looked all over as Mektic and Rosolska raced to a 4-1 lead but they hit back to claim three match points - failing to convert all three before finally winning 11-9.

“I have got a good talent for picking the best partner,” said Jamie afterwards.

Mattek-Sands burst into tears at the end, saying later: “I got a little emotional out there. Going from not being able to get myself out of bed last year to winning this final.”

Jamie’s success at Flushing Meadows means that he has reached the final, in either doubles or mixed doubles, in the past four years, picking up three trophies in that run.

This weekend he plays at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow in Great Britain’s World Group playoff against Uzbekistan.

Little brother Andy won’t be playing and Kyle Edmund also misses out with Cameron Norrie, Jay Clarke and Dan Evans cited for singles duty. Jamie will partner doubles specialist Dom Inglot.