Tennis: Andy Murray shrugs off singles upset to record win with brother

ANDY Murray was inspired by the prospect of creating a piece of family history as he roused himself from a pitiful singles exit to reach the second round of the Olympic tennis doubles in Beijing tonight.

Murray had looked set for the briefest of visits to the Chinese capital after making a mockery of pre-tournament medal predictions by being dumped out 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 by Chinese Taipei's world number 77 Yen-Hsun Lu.

But after pairing up with brother Jamie, Murray's mood improved as the British pair battled from a set down to beat Canada's Daniel Nestor and Frederic Niemeyer 4-6 6-3 6-4 just as the clock ticked past midnight local time.

Andy Murray said: "I'd like success but if I had to pick one it would be to win with my brother. To win an Olympic medal with my brother would be something special, and something very few families have done."

Murray looked like he had the upcoming US Open on his mind as he failed to make the most of a host of chances against Lu, twice squandering a break advantage to lose the first set on a tie-break.

A brief rain delay early in the second set seemed to help Murray, who hit back from an early break down to 2-2, but the favourite, struggling throughout, had to battle hard to stay in the set.

At 4-4 Murray finally got his chance on the Lu serve when he went 0-40 up, but again Lu was allowed to wriggle out of trouble, saving four break points to himself move within one game of the match.

At that point a Murray defeat was as good as inevitable and a series of unforced errors handed Lu his simple victory, leaving the prospects for the Murrays' doubles competition looking grim.

"I don't want to make excuses and he just played better than me," added Murray, who revealed a quick half-hour sleep had reinvigorated him sufficiently for his doubles clash. "I had my chances and I didn't take them."

When Andy Murray double-faulted to lose the first set 6-4 against Niemeyer and Nestor, the current world doubles number one, things appeared even bleaker, but the Scots rallied in the second set.

And Jamie Murray admitted it had been hard to pull his younger brother through with the memory of that painful singles defeat still so fresh in his mind.

Jamie Murray said: "It was a tough situation and Andy losing in the singles was a bit of a shock for us. He was a bit flat and some of that translated to me. That happens sometimes.

"Andy came here with high hopes of doing well in the singles and I guess he needed a bit of encouragement. It was a tough day for him but we got through and that's the main thing."

Three consecutive breaks of the Niemeyer serve proved enough to level the match at one set all but although the Murrays now had the momentum, they would make tortuous work of reaching the second round.

Grabbing a seemingly crucial break on the Nestor serve in the fourth game of the decider, the pair moved to the brink of victory only for Jamie to fail to serve out for the match and gift the Canadians a break back.

But with the match ticking over into Tuesday morning, the Murrays avoided a potentially marathon final set by fashioning three match points on the Niemeyer serve, and finally scraped home on their third and final chance.