Jamie Murray lifts doubles hopes

WIMBLEDON
Date: 22 June - 5 July
Coverage: BBC One, BBC Two, BBC HD, Red Button, website streaming (UK only) and text commentary, 5 Live, 5 Live Sports Extra, BBC iPlayer
Tennis on the BBC

By Ian Westbrook
BBC Sport at Wimbledon

Jamie Murray was Wimbledon mixed doubles champion in 2007

Jamie Murray kept the British flag flying in the doubles on an otherwise disappointing day for home players.

Murray and American partner Liezel Huber beat 10th seeds Nenad Zimonjic and Zi Yan in the second round of the mixed doubles in the day's final match.

However four doubles pairs went out of their competitions.

Chris Eaton and Alexander Slabinsky and James Auckland and Elena Baltacha, Ken Skupski and Katie O'Brien and Colin Fleming and Sarah Borwell all lost.

Murray started his match on Court Two while younger brother Andy was still in action in his third round singles match on Centre Court and with rain clouds hovering menacingly overhead.

He and Huber took a tight first set on a tie-break but lost the next to set up a tense finish.

As fans flocked on to court with no other action left to watch, it looked like a miserable day for doubles would be completed when they fell 3-1 behind.

But they then staged a superb recovery to reel off five games in a row and seal victory with their second match point in an hour and 55 minutes.

The results mean that Murray, and Jamie Delgado and Jonathan Marray in the men's doubles, are the only British players to remain in the senior doubles competitions going into the second week of the Championships.

Eaton and Slabinsky were beaten in round two of the men's competitions, losing 6-4 6-3 7-6 (7-0) to unseeded Leos Friedl and David Skoch.

Eaton reached the second round of the singles last year

All three sets in the match were very close with the Czech pair breaking once in each of the first two sets to take control of the match.

Neither side gave the other a chance in the third set, which went to a tie-break but then the Britons fell apart.

They failed to win a single point to make a disappointing exit.

Auckland and Baltacha were beaten 6-1 6-2 in just 58 minutes in their second round mixed doubles tie against fifth seeds Daniel Nestor and Elena Vesnina.

They failed to hold their serve in the first set of their match - the only game they won against Nestor and Vesnina coming from a break.

Things were not much better in the second set as they slipped out of the competition.

Skupski and O'Brien lost 6-3 7-6 (7-4) to 11th seeds Andre Sa and Ai Sugiyama in the second round of the mixed doubles.

They paid the price for only taking two of the eight break points they earned during the match.

Fleming and Borwell were unable to break the serve of 13th seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza in their tight mixed doubles match, which they lost 7-6 (7-4) 6-4.