Doubles defeat for Murray

11:00pm Friday 4th July 2008

Jamie Murray could not repeat his heroics of last year as he and and his American partner Liezel Huber bowed out of the Wimbledon mixed doubles at the semi-final stage.

Murray, who claimed the 2007 title alongside Jelena Jankovic, seemed destined for his second successive final when he and Huber breezed through the first set against Bob Bryan and Samantha Stosur.

But Bryan and Stosur claimed the second on a tie-breaker and edged the third to take it 2-6 7-6 (7/1) 6-4.

A backhand return from Huber set up break point in game three and the 12th seeds once again got on top of the Stosur serve to break to love in game seven.

Bryan then netted a wide Huber serve to surrender three set points and, though they saved two, Stosur went long to hand Murray and Huber the first set.

The second set was a different story, though, as Murray netted to surrender his service on the first break point and they faced two more in Huber's next service game, but the American produced two big serves to save them, before holding with an ace.

A couple of errors from Stosur then gave Murray and Huber two rare break points on the formidable Bryan serve and, though the Scot went long on the first, he produced a fine return on the second to seal the game.

Murray held his next service game and Huber negotiated two set points on her serve to take the set into a tie-breaker, where an error from the Scot cost them the set on the first of five set points.

Stosur saved two break points in game eight and Murray could not follow suit, surrendering the second in game nine with a double fault.

Bryan saved two break-back points as he served for the match and, though Murray and Huber saved a match point, Bryan served out with an ace.

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