Jamie Murray enjoyed a topsy-turvy Tuesday at the US Open as the defence of his men’s doubles title came to an end but he remains on course for mixed doubles glory.
Murray and Bruno Soares won the men’s doubles title at Flushing Meadows in 2016 but were no match for Jean-Julien Roger and Horia Tecau on Grandstand.
The Scottish-Brazilian pairing had cruised into the quarter-finals without dropping a single set but soon found themselves in a 5-0 hole against the Romanian Tecau and Dutchman Rojer.
They never recovered, slipping to a 6-1, 6-2 defeat that barely lasted an hour and Murray was disappointed with the loss after such a strong start to the tournament.
“We started off badly in that match, we served a lot of double faults to donate our serves and then those guys had a lot of confidence after that,” he said.
“They played really well, we didn't really do ourselves justice but they zoned.
“Being defending champion doesn't guarantee you anything obviously, but we played three really good matches up to this point.
“It was just unfortunate that today we were off and they were really on.”
But there was better news for Murray, the No 5 doubles player in the world, as he and Martina Hingis are through to the mixed doubles semi-finals.
The newly-formed duo won Wimbledon together in July and their partnership is showing no signs of stopping as they outlasted Abigail Spears and Juan Sebastian Cabal in the last eight.
Spears and Cabal are this year’s Australian Open champions, but three-time Olympian Murray did enough alongside Hingis to hold on for a 6-3, 2-6, 10-8 victory.
That sets up a semi-final clash with a familiar face in Tecau and women’s singles quarter-finalist Coco Vandeweghe, and Murray hopes he and Hingis can overcome the contracted US Open schedule to claim another major title.
“We did really well to win because the tie-break was super close and then we played a few good points at the end to get through,” Murray added.
“So I was really happy with that, especially after the way the men's doubles went. “I think we fancy our chances against whoever we're playing against, but it's obviously a bit more stressful playing here than Wimbledon because the format's a lot shorter.
“I'm looking forward to it, it’s another chance of getting to a grand slam final.”