Jamie Murray, the elder brother of world No 3 Andy, and his Czech partner Pavel Vizner were dumped out of the French Open doubles at the first-round stage yesterday. The unseeded pair lost 6-3, 6-2 to the Czech duo of Leos Friedl and David Skoch on Court Eight at Roland Garros. Murray and Vizner managed to retrieve an early break in the opening set but lost it in 35 minutes. And their unseeded opponents refused to let them off the hook, storming into a 4-0 lead in the second set - an advantage they never looked like squandering.
Murray, 23, also lost in round one of the men's doubles at the Australian Open earlier this year, although his partner then was American Eric Butorac. A miserable week for Great Britain continued when Ross Hutchins later took to Court 11 alongside Australian Rennae Stubbs in the mixed doubles, and went down 6-2, 6-2 to third seeds Lisa Raymond and Marcin Matkowski. Hutchins and Stubbs, a former doubles partner of Raymond, both lost their opening service games and that set the tone for the contest. They also failed to take any of their five break points against the American-Polish partnership as they lost in just 45 minutes.
Their losses meant the five British players involved in the doubles draws failed to win a match between them. Anne Keothavong, Sarah Borwell and Hutchins (in the men's doubles) had already suffered first-round doubles exits in Paris. The top seeds in the men's doubles tournament are safely through to the second round. The Canadian-Serbian pairing of Daniel Nester and Nenad Zimonjic, who have been partners since 2007, were too strong for the Argentinian duo of Lucas Arnold Ker and Horacio Zeballos, winning 6-3, 6-4 on Court 14 yesterday.
* With agencies