Frustration boils over for Jamie Murray after US Open doubles hopes end in quarter-final defeat

The British No.2 and Brazilian partner Bruno Soares were beaten 7-5, 6-4 by Malek Jaziri and Radu Albot at Flushing Meadows

Jamie Murray hurled his racket across the court in disgust on Wednesday after the Scot and his Brazilian doubles partner, Bruno Soares, went out in the quarter-finals of the US Open. Murray and Soares were beaten 7-5, 6-4 by Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri and Moldova’s Radu Albot, who were playing only their second tournament together.

It was a disappointing end to what had been a good summer on north American hard courts for Murray and Soares, who won the titles in Washington and Cincinnati and had not dropped a set in their first three matches here.

Jaziri and Albot, ranked No.59 and No.95 in the world respectively in singles, first played together at Wimbledon two months ago when they were beaten in the first round, but have quickly gelled in New York. Their previous victims included the highly experienced pair of Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau, the No.6 seeds.

Murray and Soares, who won the title together here two years ago, were the No.4 seeds but were up against it from the start as the Brazilian was broken in the third game. Albot dropped his serve in the following game, but at 5-5 Soares was broken again, giving Albot the chance to serve out for the set.

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The second set began in similar fashion, with Soares again dropping serve in the third game. Soares and Murray failed to take break-point opportunities on Albot’s serve at 1-2 and 3-4 and had to save a match point on Murray’s serve at 3-5. In the next game the match ended on the second match point when Soares missed a volley.

Murray, whose frustration was evident when he threw his racket away, said afterwards: “We didn’t play a good match. We started a bit edgy and we had chances in the second set, the whole way through, but we didn’t take them and that was it.

“They played some good stuff and we didn’t make enough first serves. We gave them a lot of looks on second serves and let them play a little bit too much but that’s it.

“We had a great opportunity today and for the rest of the tournament. We got ourselves into the business end of the event but unfortunately we couldn’t take it further. But we won a lot of matches over the summer.”

Murray and Soares should still qualify for the year-ending Nitto ATP Finals at the O2 Arena in London. Later on Wednesday, Murray and Bethanie Mattek-Sands meet Christian Harrison and Christina McHale for a place in the mixed doubles final.