Jamie Murray missed out on a British record eighth Grand Slam title as he and Bethanie Mattek-Sands were beaten in the final of the Australian Open.
Murray and Mattek-Sands took the first set but went down 5-7, 6-4, 10-1, to Czech Barbora Krejcikova and Nikola Mektic of Croatia.
“I think they played a really good match,” Murray said. “We did well at the end of the first set, especially Beth, [who] came up with some amazing returns.
“Nikola played a good match and I thought [Krejcikova] started to play really well from the middle of the match onwards.
“The tie-break got away from us, which was disappointing but it was still an awesome tournament, we got to the final. But that’s life.”
Mattek-Sands said they had given everything they could on the night but just fell short.
“It was a good match, we put it all out there,” she said. “They made some more shots, they played well. They took on the pressure well. They did really well, they came up big.”
It was the first Grand Slam title for Mektic while for Krejcikova, it was her fourth, and her second straight Australian Open title, having won with the American Rajeev Ram 12 months ago.
Victory for Murray and Mattek-Sands would have made the Scot the most successful British player in the Open era, in terms of Grand Slam titles, a mark he currently shares with former Wimbledon champion Virginia Wade.
Having taken out No.1 seeds Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic and Marcelo Melo of Brazil in a deciding tie-break in the opening round, Murray
and Mattek-Sands had cruised through to the final without dropping another set and looked every inch the likely champions.
The winners at the US Open in each of the past two years, they went into the final as favourites but when Murray dropped serve in the opening game, they knew they were going to be in a dogfight.
In fact, Krejcikova and Mektic were the stronger team throughout the first set and the only time they faltered was when Mektic served for it at 5-4. With Murray
and Mattek-Sands playing their best return game of the set, the game went to deuce and Mektic double-faulted on the deciding point to give them the break back.
Mattek-Sands, who was chasing her 10th Grand Slam title, then held to put them ahead for the first time at 6-5 and the American came up with two stunning returns to get the break and the set.
At that stage it looked as if Murray and Mattek-Sands would pull away but a stroke of luck gave Krejcikova and Mektic the break for 3-2 in the second set, the ball ricocheting off the net for the winner on the crucial point.
Mattek-Sands was broken as the fifth seeds moved ahead 5-2 but Murray and Mattek-Sands got one of the breaks back and Murray then held to reduce the deficit to 5-4.
This time, Mektic made no mistake when serving for the set to force a deciding match tie-break.
Krejcikova and Mektic then raised their game and as Murray and Mattek-Sands struggled, they won eight straight points to clinch victory.
Murray and Mattek-Sands said they plan to play together in the rest of the Grand Slam events.
“For sure, we are a good team,” Murray said. “It’s a lot of fun, I couldn’t ask for a better partner.”
Murray will head straight to Montpellier to play the ATP event with Neal Skupski, before probably heading to the United
States, with back-to-back Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami to look forward to.
Murray’s fellow Scot, Gordon Reid, will be going for the men’s wheelchair singles title today, taking on top seed Shingo Kunieda.
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