Australian open disappointment for Andy Murray but brother stays the course

In the words of the song by Meatloaf, ‘Two out of Three ain’t bad’ and that was the result for Britain (and Scotland) at the Australian Open with two grand slam wins and a runner up.

Gordon Reid of Scotland won his first grand slam singles title on January 30 by beating Joachim Gerard 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 in the wheelchair final at the Australian Open and reached the final of the men’s doubles although he and his partner Shingo Kunieda were unable to capitalise on leading 5-0 in the final set.

Then Jamie Murray became the first Briton (and Scot) to win the Australian Open men’s doubles title in 82 years, as he and his partner of just one month, Brazilian Bruno Soares beat Daniel Nestor and Radek Stepanek 2-6 6-4 7-5 also on January 30, watched by Andy Murray who Jamie told off for not going to bed early in preparation for his finals match.

After a disastrous first set on January 31 which he lost 6-1, Andy Murray recovered and took the next two sets to tie breaks but just couldn’t get the better of Novak Djokovic who won in three straight sets to give him his sixth Australian Open title. Murray now shares a dubious record with his former coach Ivan Lendl in having lost five finals in this tournament, four of them to Djokovic.

Charming in defeat, he congratulated his opponent on the win and will now hasten back to the UK to be with his wife Kim who is due to give birth to their first child within the next two weeks.