MURRAY’S MAJOR Jamie and Martina triumph in US Open mixed doubles
JAMIE MURRAY may be the less famous brother, but last night he extended his lead in the family race to have the most Grand Slam titles.
Partnering the remarkably evergreen Martina Hingis, the 31-year-old Scot defeated the third seeded team of New Zealand’s Michael Venus and HaoChing Chan of Taipei 6-1, 4-6, and then 10-8 in the elongated tiebreak that decides mixed doubles when sets are split.
Andy Murray quickly posted a picture of the winning team on his Instagram account, saying: ‘Proud little brother’.
For Jamie Murray, who recovered from a dip in form in the latter part of the second set, it was a second straight triumph after winning Wimbledon two months ago and his third mixed title to add to his two men’s doubles at the Majors, alongside Bruno Soares. Obviously they do not carry the same weight as singles, but it puts him two ahead of his brother and gives the family eight overall.
Jamie has never been beaten when playing with Hingis, 36, although there have been some close calls.
‘We have won 10-8 in the tiebreaks three times, it shows how tight the margins are,’ he said.
‘ Hopefully we play more together. I tried to find the best partner I can, she is an amazing player who has had an amazing career.’
Mixed doubles is a popular recreational form of the sport that attracts bigger audiences than the relative paucity of its prize money would suggest.
Murray and Hingis were playing for a mere £58,000 each, which is around £2.7million less than what the winner of the women’s singles would get.
This was the first of two doubles finals for Hingis over the weekend, with the Swiss reaching the women’s doubles final as well.
She showed her unflappable qualities immediately by helping break the New Zealander’s serve to love in the first game, and they had points to go 3-0 up against Chan’s opener as well. The Scottish- Swiss duo only needed to play solidly to wrap up the first set in 22 minutes.
But in the fifth game of the second set Murray fell behind 0- 40 on his serve, and while they got back to deuce they lost t he sudden death deciding point. The confidence was seeping back into the previously inept Kiwi, and while Chan was broken back to make it 4- 4, Murray’s form was heading in the opposite direction.
In the tie break the top seeds were behind until nosing ahead for 7-6. At 7-8 Murray held two serves and on their first match point a superb backhand down the line from Hingis into the corner set up an easy putaway volley for the Scot to seal the title.