Jamie and Bruno show fight to seal victory in opener

Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares worked hard to win their opening match on Sunday at the Nitto ATP Finals with a 7-6, 4-6, 10-5 victory over Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus in one hour and 49 minutes.

The fourth seeds saved three set points and recovered from 3-5 down in the first set and a victory last night (Tuesday) against Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah would almost certainly clinch a semi-final place for the third successive year.

“I think we did really well to win,”said Jamie afterwards.“It was a battle from the first game. Obviously, I lost my serve so immediately we were kind of under the pump a bit. We hung in and got a bit lucky because it’s 5-4, 30-0 and the guy was serving great.

“All of a sudden a couple of double-faults creep in, Bruno hits a good return, all of a sudden it’s five-all.

“I thought we competed really well, especially in both the tie-breaks, played a lot of good tennis when we really needed it.”

Klaasen and Venus broke Murray in the first game and at 5-3 up Klaasen mis-timed a forehand return off Murray’s serve on a set point and in the next game, Venus could not convert two set point chances on serve.

In a tense tie-break, Murray and Soares took their lone chance to wrap up the 54-minute opener.

Klaasen and Venus took a 2-0 lead in the second set but Klaasen lost his serve in the third game. Klaasen’s power, however, forced a volley error from Murray in the 10th game.

The Dunblane/Brazilian duo seized early control of the match tie-break, winning the first three points and eased through for a 10-5 win.