Andy and Jamie Murray lose in early Olympic rounds

Andy and Jamie Murray crashed out in the first round of the Olympic men's doubles this evening in a very tight battle with Austria's Jurgen Melzer and Alexander Peya.

The British pair were cheered on by a raucous crowd on Court Two and edged the first set but, despite being twice a break ahead in the decider, they could not close it out and went down 5-7 7-6 (8/6) 7-5 after two hours and 23 minutes.

Melzer and Peya are both very good doubles players, with Melzer a former Wimbledon doubles champion alongside his regular partner Philipp Petzschner of Germany.

The Murrays, who reached the second round in Beijing four years ago, made a brilliant start with a break in the second game and, although they were pegged back to 4-3, Jamie held serve from 0-40 to make it 6-5 and they broke again when Melzer netted a volley.

The second set was extremely tight with no breaks of serve and, although they fought back from 5-2 down in the tie-break, Jamie netted a volley that gave Melzer and Peya a set point on their own serve, which they took.

The third set was much more up and down, with the Murrays twice going a break up only for Jamie's serve to be broken and them pegged back.

Andy has always relished the opportunity to represent his country with his brother and he showed how much the occasion meant to him by flinging his racquet to the turf when he went down break point.

He staved off the threat but it was Jamie's serve that was the pair's chief weakness and he was broken for the third time in the set and the fourth in the match in the 12th game as the Austrians clinched victory.

Andy was frustrated the pair had failed to take their chances, saying: "It was tough, we played well. We were a break up twice in the third set. We had enough chances to win the match, each time we got the break we got broken straight back so it was tough."

The 25-year-old thanked the noisy crowd for their support, adding: "They did a great job. They were really loud from the first point to the last.

"They helped a lot, you don't always get that for doubles matches and it was a really nice atmosphere to play in. I hope they enjoyed the match."

Murray will hope for a different result tomorrow when he opens his singles campaign against Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka on Centre Court.

"I will try and get prepared and try and do all of the recovery stuff," said the third seed. "I will get an early night and get myself ready for tomorrow."

PA