JAMIE Murray's quest to reach the semi-finals of the ATP World Tour finals suffered a setback when he and his Australian partner John Peers went down 3-6, 6-7 (5) to No 8 seeds Rohan Bopanna of India and Florin Mergea of Romania. The Scottish/Australian partnership, who have already agreed to go their separate ways after this tournament, got off to a slow start and were never quite able to recover. Despite an inch-perfect Peers lob in the second set tie-break which appeared to give the No 4 seeds hope of prolonging matters into a Champions breaker, Bopanna and Mergea proved flinty opponents, the Indian capitalising on match point with a fine forehand down the line.

Having beaten Bob and Mike Bryan in their opening match, the result means that Bopanna and Mergea, a former junior World No 2 in singles, have already secured their semi-final place. That leaves Murray, named today in Leon Smith's Davis Cup team for the final in Belgium, and Peers - victors on Day One against Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini - battling it out with the Bryan brothers and the Italian duo to join them in the last four.