Murray loses bid for Olympic history in doubles defeat

Andy Murray has failed in his bid to make tennis history as he and Joe Salisbury crashed out of the men’s doubles at the Tokyo Olympics.

The pair’s medal hopes were ended by a quarter-final loss to Croatians Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig.

The British pair had been in excellent form through the first two rounds and things seemed to be going smoothly when they broke Cilic to lead by a set and a break.

But the Croatians responded impressively, breaking the Murray serve, winning the second set on a tie-break and then coming through a deciding first-to-10-point tie-break to win 4-6 7-6 (2) 10-7.

Murray had won singles gold at both London 2012 and Rio 2016, as well as a silver medal in the mixed doubles with Laura Robson in 2012.

No-one has ever picked up four tennis medals in the Olympics before, and Murray was hoping he could achieve history after withdrawing from the singles with a minor thigh strain to play in the doubles alongside Salisbury, who won his first ever major doubles title at the Australian Open in 2020.

“I am really disappointed at having to withdraw but the medical staff have advised me against playing in both events,” Murray said in a statement after his decision, which was supported by the British Olympic Association after recent injuries have affected his singles career..

read alsoTokyo Olympics: Andy Murray pulls out of men’s singles

“I have made the difficult decision to withdraw from the singles and focus on playing doubles with Joe.”

But it wasn’t to be for the British pair, as former singles world no. 3 Cilic and his partner Dodig recovered from a slow start to see them off.