Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares have reached the Australian Open doubles final in their third tournament as a team after a 6-2 6-1 win over the French team formed by Adrian Mannarino and Lucas Pouille.
Murray and Soares broke to love as Mannarino and Pouille were serving at 2-3 in the first set. The British and Brazilian team pulled away to take the first set in 32 minutes. They broke three times in the first, fifth and seventh games to clinch the win in just 56 minutes. Murray and Soares converted four of their six break point chances and hit 19 winners to 6 unforced errors.
As a team Murray and Soares reached the semifinal in Doha and won their first title in Sydney beating Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea. Soares is a tow-time Grand Slam mixed doubles champion. He reached the men’s doubles final at the 2013 US Open with Alexander Peya.
Jamie and Andy Murray are the first brothers in the Open Era to reach the semifinals in both the men’s singles and the men’s doubles at the Australian Open. Jamie had already two Grand Slam finals with John Peers at Wimbledon and at the US Open in 2015. He is the first British finalist in a very successful Australian Open campaign for British tennis. His brother Andy will be bidding to reach the singles final tomorrow when he plays against Milos Raonic. Johanna Konta lost against in the semifinal of the women’s singles against Angelique Kerber.
“We came here feeling good, playing seven matches and winning one title. The conditions in Sydney are similar to Melbourne, so we had a good feeling about this week. We knew we could do well. I hope we can do one more. I am starting a new journey with Bruno here and it’s been a great two weeks for us. If we win one more match we can get over the final hurdle”, said Jamie Murray.
“It’s been great. Andy has obviously been doing amazing things for a long time. What Jo has done this week has been quite unbelievable”, said Jamie Murray.
Mannarino and Pouille beat top seed Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau in the quarter finals.
Murray and Soares will face Daniel Nestor and Radek Stepanek who overcame Pablo Cuevas and Marcel Granollers 7-6 (13-11) 6-4. Nestor and Stepanek fended off three set points in the first-set tie-break before getting the break at the start of the second set. The two tennis veterans won 77 percent of their first serve points and hit 20 winners.
