JAMIE Murray secured a place in his first-ever Wimbledon men's doubles semi-final then backed his brother Andy to join him in the last four of his chosen event at SW19.

The Scottish World No 3, who faces Vasek Pospisil in singles duty first up on Centre Court today, spent much of his early life attempting to emulate his elder sibling and so it will be again as big brother for once was allowed to steal a march. The 29-year-old and his Aussie partner John Peers continued their excellent recent form with a 6-4, 7-6 (3), 6-3 victory against Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares, the No 8 seeds.

They now face the unseeded Philipp Petzschner of Germany and his Israeli partner Jonathan Erlich on Thursday for the right to contest the championship match. Jamie already has one Wimbledon title under his belt, claiming the 2007 mixed doubles title here in the company of Jelena Jankovic.

Neither brother, though, appears to be overly concerned with watching the other. While Andy said Jamie had lost so frequently when he was watching that he was starting to think he was a jinx, Jamie usually tends to eschew his allotted seat in the player's box and will do so again. "We'll have a day off on Wednesday and play again on Thursday," said Jamie. "We'll practice for an hour or so but I won't go to Centre Court to see Andy - I'll probably watch on TV. Andy is a big favourite with Vasek playing in his first Grand Slam quarter-final. Vasek can hurt Andy but over five sets it's going to be difficult, especially with the amount of tennis he's played in the last few days. It would be great if me and Andy both made the semi-finals - there's certainly no downside to that!

"I've lost a lot of matches when Andy hasn't been there too so I'm not quite sure if he's right to say that he's a jinx!" Jamie added. "I think this is a good breakthrough in terms of stepping it up in the biggest tournament there is. If we get to the final he can certainly watch if he wants!"

Tired or not after ten sets of tennis on Monday, Amelie Mauresmo said that Pospisil, the 25-year-old Canadian World No 56, was an opponent who required to be taken seriously. The Scot has won all three of their previous meetings without dropping a set, and this is his first Grand Slam quarter final, but he has a big serve and forehand, and has already won three five-set matches this tournament. "Although it's the first time for him at this level of a tournament, I think he's going to go out there and have nothing to lose and just go for his shots," said Mauresmo. "He's a big guy, he can really release some big shots on the serve and on the forehand. He can come forward as well, good at the net. He's a pretty consistent overall player. This one needs to be taken very seriously. He [Murray] is in a good place, but it's still a long way and it's important right now to look at one match at a time."

It was probably a blow to Murray's hopes of a second Wimbledon singles win when World No 1 Novak Djokovic got the better of his fifth set shoot-out with Kevin Anderson of South Africa yesterday, but the younger Murray sibling was too busy practising to pay too close attention. "It's such a long way away from affecting me that at this stage that I'm not following it closely," said Murray. Djokovic, who faces a tough match against Marin Cilic in this third successive day of competitive play, apologised to a ball girl who was visibly upset when he screamed in her direction.