Australian Open 2016: Jamie Murray reaches ‘pinnacle’ of Grand Slam success but still aims for No 1

Murray sparked surprise when he parted company at the end of last year with Australian John Peers, with whom he had just finished runner-up at Wimbledon and the US Open

Jamie Murray and his Brazilian partner Bruno Soares with their Australian Open doubles trophy (Getty Images)

Winning the Wimbledon mixed doubles title with Jelena Jankovic at the age of 21 remains a wonderful memory for Jamie Murray, but that triumph at the All England Club bore no comparison with the Australian Open men’s doubles title that the Scot claimed on Saturday night.

“This is my bread and butter,” Murray said after joining forces with Bruno Soares to beat Daniel Nestor and Radek Stepanek 2-6, 6-4, 7-5. “For me, the Grand Slam men’s doubles, that is going to be the pinnacle of my career, other than Davis Cup obviously. This is what I’m working towards every day, every time I step on the court.”

It was a remarkable end to a remarkable beginning for Murray and his new partner. The Scot and the Brazilian, who had both lost previous Grand Slam men’s doubles finals with different partners, have been playing together for less than a month.

Eyebrows were raised when Murray parted company at the end of last year with Australian John Peers, with whom he had just finished runner-up at Wimbledon and the US Open, but the decision has been quickly vindicated. Murray and Soares are proving a formidable combination thanks to the former’s excellence at the net and the latter’s power at the back of the court.

Only three years ago Murray was considering retirement after struggling to make an impact with a succession of partners, but the faith of his coach, Louis Cayer, who has played a huge role in developing an outstanding generation of British doubles players, kept him going.

“He’s the guy that made it happen for me,” Murray said. “He really believed that I could do great things. It took me a lot longer to realise it.”

Andy Murray emerged in the stadium at the end of Saturday night’s final to join in the celebrations and take photographs, despite the fact that it was 1am and he had his own Grand Slam final to play the following day. He had not wanted to watch the match live because he gets too anxious when his brother is playing. “Andy, you should be in bed,” Jamie joked in his speech at the presentation ceremony.

Murray senior will climb to No 2 in the doubles world rankings today, while Andy will drop one place to No 3 in singles, replaced by Roger Federer.

Marcelo Melo, the world No 1 in doubles, has less of a lead than Novak Djokovic has at the top of the singles rankings, so Jamie could beat his brother to the No 1 spot. “I guess the race is on,” Jamie said, smiling. “Bring it on.”

He added: “Louis keeps telling me that he really believes I can get to No 1. It’s a process. He worked really hard with me on my serve for the last 18 months. He told me it would take two years to really master that, master my return of serve, which is a great weapon for me now. It wasn’t the case for a lot of my career.

“But all the work we’ve done together has always been in a process with a view to getting to No 1. Whether I believed I could do it, I don’t know, but he did.”

The Murrays were the first brothers to reach the finals in men’s singles and doubles at a Grand Slam event since Reggie and Laurie Doherty at Wimbledon in 1906.

Leon Smith, Britain’s Davis Cup captain, last night described the success of the Murrays as “quite astonishing”. He added: “Particularly for the one family to be in that situation, from the one town, it’s an incredible story. It has always been an incredible story. It just gets even more incredible when things like that happen.”

Smith reckons that on current form Jamie is the world’s best doubles player. “I think the things he has improved in his game were really highlighted last night,” Smith said. “After the first set, he started returning incredibly well. He has worked really hard on his returns. And he caught fire after a couple of games in the second set.

“He has really improved his serve. He has always been the best at cleaning up at the net. His reflexes are amazing. But the serve and the return are so important and those are the bits that have really improved.”

Smith said he had been particularly impressed with the way Murray had reacted so positively after being broken when serving for the match in the third set.

“I think this is where Jamie’s really improved,” Smith said. “I said that to him as we were walking out of here very late last night. The one thing I think he’s really applied himself to is the focus. He is there on every single point now, whereas a few years ago he could maybe drift a bit and suffer a bit of disappointment for a few points, a game, maybe more.”