THEY used to battle it out at a multitude of sports to be crowned the No 1 son in the family. But now the No 1 singles player in the world and one half of the sport's best year-end doubles pairing are happy just to settle for being each other's No 1 fans.

Andy Murray might have demonstrated his current supremacy in the sport with an imperious 6-4, 6-2 dismissal of US Open champion Stan Wawrinka yesterday, but he had no problem being upstaged by his big brother. As it happened Jamie didn't have to hit a ball yesterday to steal a march on his younger sibling, as his former doubles partner John Peers and Finland's Henri Kontinen's 6-7(5), 6-4, (10-4) victory against Nicolas Mahut and Pierre Hugues Herbert meant he and his Brazilian partner Bruno Soares could not be overhauled in the rankings. Jamie would also have a pretty good shot of returning to his April position as the world's top individual doubles exponent were it not for the fact that Soares played a couple of tournaments during the year that he didn't.

"We obviously used to play against each other all of the time pretty much until we were like 12 to 14," said Andy, who now faces Milos Raonic in the last four, with the winner of Novak Djokovic and Kei Nishikori waiting in the final. "That was when we went our separate paths really."

While Jamie went to Cambridge then Paris, Andy went to Barcelona. "Kind of between 12 and 17, 18 we didn't spend loads of time together," he added. "But before then, pretty much every time we went to practice or play tennis, it was together. We played golf together, squash together, table tennis. We were always competing against each other from a young age.

"Now we obviously don't," added the Scot. "But I think we're probably each other's biggest fans. It's really special to get to watch what he's achieved in the biggest competitions in the sport. Neither of us ever would have expected this when we were growing up so we need to try and enjoy it."

For all the bonhomie, typically of the younger Murray sibling there was a bit of dubiety when it came to who used to prevail in these multi-sport marathons. "I mean, when we were really young, Jamie would have won most things we did," said Andy. "He was 15 months older, so he was bigger and stronger and better than me at most things. Then as we started to get older and physically were on more of a level playing field, we were pretty close really at most things. Jamie is a really good golfer. Football, probably me. Then like squash and table tennis, more of the racquet sports, was pretty close between the two of us really. Well, that's my recollection of it. He might say something a bit different!"

Where once they used to compete in the back garden or the local courts and golf course, now the 17,000 capacity o2 is their playground. This tournament has been a family affair for the Murrays this week, and it could still be fated to reach the perfect conclusion if Andy can out perform Djokovic.

"They [Jamie and Soares] had an amazing year," said Andy. "They only started playing with each other in January but won the two slams, which is fantastic. The whole year has been fantastic for both of us. And obviously we would like to finish it perfectly if we can. But regardless of what happens over the weekend, we can look back on this year and be very proud of what we've done as a family."

"It was exciting, a strange way to do it in the end," said Jamie. "We had a great year, we didn't win loads of tournaments but we won the right ones."

Peers joked that he would accept a beer as a down payment. "Hopefully they grab me a drink but it didn't come down to our match today," said the Australian.