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‘Soares easier to play with than Andy’
NEW YORK: Britain’s Jamie Murray captured the US Open doubles title with Bruno Soares on Saturday and admitted that the Brazilian was easier to play with than Grand
NEW YORK: Britain’s Jamie Murray captured the US Open doubles title with Bruno Soares on Saturday and admitted that the Brazilian was easier to play with than Grand Slam winning brother Andy.
Fourth seeds Murray and Soares eased to a 6-2, 6-3 win over unseeded Spaniards Pablo Carreno Busta and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the final.
Murray, the brother of twice Wimbledon singles champion Andy, became the first British man to claim the U.S. Open doubles crown since Roger Taylor in 1972, while Soares is the first Brazilian to land the title.
Andy, the Olympic gold medallist in Rio this year, lost in the U.S. Open singles quarter-finals to Kei Nishikori of Japan.
By the measure of grand slam tournaments won this year, elder brother Jamie now has bragging rights, leading Andy 2-1.
Murray and Soares also won the first Grand Slam they played together at the Australian Open in January.
The Murray brothers will team up again next week when Britain face Argentina in the Davis Cup semi-finals in Glasgow.
Jamie told reporters he is playing the best tennis of his career, and that his younger brother’s success this year has helped with motivation.
“Just seeing him doing so well and wanting to have some of that success as well,” Murray said of how his younger brother’s recent string of big wins has made him work harder.
There is still a huge gap in career prize money between the brothers — Andy has won nearly $50 million (Rs 334 crore) since turning pro in 2005, while doubles specialist Jamie has collected around $2.3 million (Rs 15 crore) since 2004.
The brothers have played together at times, but the elder Murray made clear that he considers the partnership with Soares a better fit.
“With Andy it’s not so easy. Great players, they do what they’re going to do,” Murray said, adding that it was sometimes hard to proffer advice to his brother on court.
