Andy and Jamie Murray beaten in Olympic tennis doubles

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Andy and Jamie Murray suffered a disappointing first-round exit against Austria's Jurgen Melzer and Alexander Peya in the Olympic doubles event.

The British brothers had their chances after winning the first set and forcing a second set tie-break, but the Austrians prevailed 5-7 7-6 (8-6) 7-5.

Elena Baltacha marked her Olympic debut with a 6-3 6-4 singles win over Agnes Szavay of Hungary at Wimbledon.

But Anne Keothavong lost 4-6 6-3 6-2 to Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark.

The Murray brothers had the better of things for much of the two hours and 32 minutes they were on Court Two, twice leading by a break in the final set.

However, elder brother Jamie lost serve twice as they were pegged back, and once again in the 12th game as the Austrians clinched victory.

"It was tough. We played well," said Andy Murray. "We were a break up twice in the third set. We had enough chances to win the match, but each time we got the break we got broken straight back, so it was tough."

Asked about the raucous crowd, he added: "They did a great job. They were really loud from the first point to the last.

"They helped a lot. You don't always get that for doubles matches and it was a really nice atmosphere to play in. I hope they enjoyed the match."

The world number four must now turn his attention to the singles and an opening match against Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka on Centre Court on Sunday.

Britain's other hopes in the men's doubles, Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins, were beaten 7-5 6-3 by Frenchmen Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet, while Heather Watson and Laura Robson let an early lead slip as Angelique Kerber and Sabine Lisicki of Germany won 1-6 6-4 6-3.

Baltacha will play doubles with Keothavong on Sunday before her second-round singles match against Ana Ivanovic on Monday.

"It's an amazing opportunity for me," said the Scot. "I have absolutely nothing to lose. She's the one that is meant to be beating me.

"It's a great match to go into because there's no pressure on me. That way you can really relax and really go for it. When Ana is playing at her best, she's a very good player. If she is not playing well, there's a lot of weaknesses.

"One, it depends which Ana turns up. Two, I'm going to be fighting. I'll really swing for it, and see what kind of damage I can cause her."

Baltacha also revealed that she needs surgery on one and maybe both ankles and could quit the sport if the recovery process takes a long time.

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64 comments

  • Comment posted by U15252432, at 23:32 28 Jul 2012

    @26
    "Not sure on selection rules but didn't we have a wimbledon men's doubles winner available for selection?"

    Unfortunately not. The ranking cut off was just after the French Open and Marray's ranking wasn't high enough.

    "It was obvious any pairing involving andy would lose"

    I'm not so sure about that. He was the best player on court today by a distance.

  • Comment posted by Snape, at 21:30 28 Jul 2012

    Jamie's serve was the reason they lost, you cannot lose your serve that many times and expect to win.

    Well done to Elena Baltacha though, but for me questions need to be asked about the empty seats on the courts, tennis and swimming were embarrasing and questions need to be asked.

  • Comment posted by Jules, at 22:57 28 Jul 2012

    Here's a thing. Meltzer is a Wimbledon doubles champ x2 and a very good doubles player as is peya. They won it and it was a very close match. Simples
    All reasoning about why they lost for whatever reason outside of tennis is pure unfounded speculation

  • Comment posted by AG, at 22:25 28 Jul 2012

    Re all the comments about Marray. It is convenient for the nay-sayers to forget that the Olympic team had to be named before Wimbledon, when Marray was hovering in the high 70s in the doubles rankings - below all the others mentioned in #17 below. So at the time the team had to be named to meet IOC requirements, he should not have been selected - and he wasn't. Simples!

  • Comment posted by U15362211, at 04:10 29 Jul 2012

    Come on, they both wanted to win, they were there on merit, and they lost to the better doubles team.

    Simple really.

    Andy, good luck in the singles.

  • Comment posted by kris, at 00:50 29 Jul 2012

    I watched three GB matches today, the Murrays and Watson and Robson in the tennis and in the Badminton with Adcock and Bankier. All three matches shared obvious similarities: 1) The GB pair won the first set comfortably. 2) GB had great chances to go on and win. 3) At least one GB player in each match bottled it. Why? For me, the insane support GB are getting seems to add too much pressure...

  • Comment posted by sparky, at 21:14 28 Jul 2012

    @10 surprise surprise, someone with no brain comes on and makes a ridiculous comment about nationality

  • Comment posted by Tim, at 20:50 28 Jul 2012

    #2, since you're a tennis fan (right?) you'll be aware that Jamie is the only member of the Murray family with a senior Wimbledon title to his name, in the mixed doubles. Not many county players have one of those. Still, don't let ignorance prevent you sharing your important opinions.

  • Comment posted by josh, at 21:43 29 Jul 2012

    @40. so, what sport is your forte then? i find it rather amusing when people who are unable to spell words such as 'final' can manage to attempt to criticise somebody FOURTH best in the world at tennis. this is quite an amazing achievement when you think about it. good win today Muzza keep it up!

  • Comment posted by U15142077, at 20:43 29 Jul 2012

    If those of you are griping about Andy Murray...If you think you can do better maybe you should just try to qualify for the next Olympics or maybe take his place then see how far you would get? Go Andy Go! Didn't get to watch you today but will be watching next time. Good Luck if you read this.

  • Comment posted by albaalba, at 12:17 29 Jul 2012

    Disappointed in a lot of the negative comments here. I was actually surprised they got as close as they did to winning. When I saw the draw I knew they would struggle. Melzer is one of the top doubles players being a two time grand slam champion and his partner is a very fine and experienced doubles player as well.It was a very competitive 1st round 3 set match which could have gone either way

  • Comment posted by Warren1981, at 12:08 29 Jul 2012

    We celebrate Rooney and Beckham, laud them as greats yet neither is probably anywhere near being in the top 10 in the world in their profession.

    For some reason, peculiarly, we deride Andy Murray at every opportunity yet he's been consistently 4th best tennis player in the world for years, behind 3 players who contest the all-time hall-of-fame.

  • Comment posted by jay_mcw, at 10:03 29 Jul 2012

    @40

    Are you in the top ten tennis earners of all time? Do you constantly come up against arguably three of the best tennis players to ever grace the sport? perhaps if you turned your attention to spelling you might go somewhere in life.

  • Comment posted by Alan, at 22:46 28 Jul 2012

    How exactly does Murray have a creepy relationship with his mum?

    If you watched any tournaments outside of Wimbledon this season you might see that she has only been at the events in England, she doesn't travel and she has a full time job working with the British female players, she was even watching Keothavong instead of Andy and Jamie today.

    Federer has his parents at more games than Murray.

  • Comment posted by AG, at 12:53 30 Jul 2012

    Joe #63 I take you haven't read the comments below. Since 2009 Marray has moved between 120 and 75 in the world doubles rankings. He was number 75, below all those selected for the Olympics, at the time (before Wimbledon) when IOC mandated that selections were made. His Wimbledon win was an unpredictable bolt from the blue from a 31 year old, and came too late too change the selection. That's why!

  • Comment posted by Kristofferson, at 21:02 29 Jul 2012

    @50 Warren
    "....For some reason, peculiarly, we deride Andy Murray at every opportunity...."

    No we don't........
    We applaud his awesome talent which has propelled him to 4th in the World.
    It's only the handful of sad anti-Scots that find reasons to snipe at AM's superb tennis skill to make up for their own failure as humans.
    Poor poor failures... get over it trolls, as Andy gets richer. Hehehe!!

  • Comment posted by U14966550, at 11:41 29 Jul 2012

    Comment number 34. hackerjack
    "Not sure on selection rules but didn't we have a wimbledon men's doubles winner available for selection?
    ---
    Yes, his name is Jamie Murray."

    Er, no. He won the MIXED doubles with Jelena Jankovic.

    "But hey, why let facts get in the way of an idiotic rant eh?"

    Hypocrisy abounds. Get your own facts straight before lashing out at others for their mistakes.

  • Comment posted by U14966550, at 11:25 29 Jul 2012

    Who cares? This is good news for Murray, he can focus all of his attention on the singles now. They were never going to win this, they've never shown any real pedigree as a doubles partnership. Jamie would have been better teamed with John Marray.

  • Comment posted by azzy4, at 10:28 29 Jul 2012

    #4 Tim
    The mixed doubles has very little prestige. On the tour the prize money is minuscule hence winning this tittle mean very little as the top players never participate. Federer, nadal dok etc just don't bother. Jamie had an awful last set and the gulf between both bothers was plain for everyone to see. Jamie would struggle in singles against the very best county players.

  • Comment posted by Killingholme_Clay , at 08:30 29 Jul 2012

    @40
    If there was an Olympic medal for sulking and pouting....

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