Dunblane's Jamie Murray and Australian John Peers narrowly failed to score the unlikeliest of victories in yesterday's World Tournament final in Rotterdam.

Murray and Peers were beaten in qualifying last Sunday but entered the main draw as 'lucky losers' after Jamie's brother Andy and Gilles Muller withdrew. They later benefitted from another withdrawal when top seeds Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin also dropped out.

Victory yesterday would have given them their second title of the year following last month's Brisbane triumph, but although they started well and won exactly the same number of points as third seeds Jean Roger and Horia Tecau, Murray and Peers crucially wasted four break points as they went down 6-3, 3-6, 8-10 in 70 minutes.

They return to action this week at the Open 13 in Marseille where they are seeded three and face Andrey Golubev and Denis Istomin in round one. Britons Colin Fleming and Jonny Marray play Taiwan wild cards Cheng-Peng Hsieh and Hsin-Han Lee.