Jamie Murray’s hopes of ending the season on a winning note were crushed at the ATP Finals on Saturday night.
Murray and his Brazilian partner Bruno Soares suffered a 7-6 (7/2) 6-2 defeat to Henri Kontinen and John Peers at the O2 Arena in London where they lost in the last four for the second year running.
Despite break points for both sides, the opening set had to be decided on a tie-break and it went the way of the defending champions.
They used that momentum to gain the first break of serve of the match at the start of the second set, Murray being the man to lose his delivery.
Kontinen, who won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title with Briton Heather Watson in 2016, and Peers, a former partner of Murray, struck again, this time on Soares' serve when the Scot left a ball and it clipped the sideline when facing break point.
The Finnish-Australian partnership will face the world's top-ranked doubles team of Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo in Sunday's final. They earlier overcame Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus 6-1 6-4 in the other semi-final.
Murray and Soares' season was not as successful as their two-Slam 2016 campaign. However, they did win three titles together and will both finish the year ranked inside the world's top 10 doubles players.
Related links
