Family tradition upheld as Jamie Murray prepares for US Open final

Jamie Murray is keeping up the family tradition: as he prepares for today's US Open doubles final, it means there has been a Murray in a final at each of the last six grand slam tournaments.

Jamie Murray, left, and partner Bruno Soares are favourites to win the doubles title in New York. Picture: Getty.

It is Jamie’s fourth appearance at the business end of a major championship (he lost at Wimbledon and the US Open last year and won in Australia in January) and, as the No 4 seeds, he and Bruno Soares will go in as favourites for the title today against the unseeded Pablo Carreno Busta and Guillermo Garcia Lopez from Spain. With his brother Andy reaching the first three singles finals of this year – and winning Wimbledon – it has been an impressive 18 months for the family.

On Thursday, Murray and Soares played their best match of the tournament by far to beat the top seeds Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert. It was the best they have played since they won the Australian Open and, for Murray and his coach Louis Cayer, it was the perfect antidote to the disappointment of losing in the first round at the Olympics with Andy.

“Louis wants me to do the best that I possibly can,” Murray said. “He was really disappointed with how the whole thing had gone in Rio. He felt the US Open in a couple of weeks was the right time to have a good tournament. We’ve been preparing for that each day and it’s been going well so far.”

Against the French team in the semi-finals, Murray and Soares were clinical in attack and calm under pressure: it was the perfect balance.

“I think for us in this situation we knew we had to go out and play a good match if we were going to have a shot to win,” Murray said. “I didn’t necessarily feel pressure to go out and win, and I think that helped us. I think we were more worried about performing well and not, ‘we should beat these teams’ or whatever. We just went out and played our game and it worked.

“We’ve got through five matches and I feel like we’ve been getting better and better. Today was a great match for us.

“I’m just excited to be in the final again. It’s a great opportunity for us. We’ve got nothing to lose. We’ll go out and do our thing and see where it gets us at the end of the day.”