Jamie Murray and his partner Bruno Soares enjoyed their second Grand Slam win of the year as they took the US Open title on Saturday (September 10th).
The pair, who only started playing together at the turn of the year after Murray ended his partnership with John Peers, recorded a comprehensive 6-2, 6-3 victory over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Pablo Carreno Busta. It was the first time a Briton had won the men's doubles at the US Open since 1972, when Roger Taylor partnered South African Cliff Drysdale.
Having already won the Australian Open, the pair will be one of the hot tickets for anyone buying corporate hospitality tickets to the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in November, where the top eight men's doubles partnerships will be in action.
With a mixed doubles title at Wimbledon to his name, Jamie Murray has now tasted Grand Slam success as often as his brother, and jokes in post-match interviews that perhaps he was now coming out of the shadow of his younger sibling.
He was also full of praise for Soares, saying: "It's a great feeling. These tournaments are the hardest ones to win. I've got a great partner in Bruno, who makes a lot of returns for me, up at the net."
If Jamie Murray has been emerging from someone else's shadow, he has hardly been alone over the past few days.
Stan Wawrinka has been somewhat eclipsed by the big four and for most of his career was no more than a top ten player, never threatening to win a Grand Slam. However, after knocking Andy Murray out of the 2013 US Open he stepped up a level, taking his first Grand Slam in the 2014 Australian Open final in 2014, preventing a Novak Djokovic clean sweep of the major titles last year by taking the French Open, and now beating Djokovic again to secure his third Grand Slam.
Djokovic won the first set on a tie-break, but Wawrinka eventually triumphed 6-7, 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 as the Serb wilted, struggling with cramp in his thigh and twice needing the trainer on to deal with blisters on his toes.
After a tournament in which he started out with a wrist injury and has been beset by shoulder trouble, it may have been a match too far for the world number one, whose progress to the final was aided by two retirements and a withdrawal.
Nonetheless, Wawrinka, at 31 the oldest winner of the men's singles since Ken Rosewall in 1970, may now be considered one of the 'big five', a view endorsed by Djokovic. He has the same number of Grand Slams as Murray and will head into The Championships Wimbledon 2017 in pursuit of the clean sweep of all four majors in his career that Djokovic completed at Roland Garros this year.
Angelique Kerber has also had a stellar tournament, ousting Serena Williams from the world number one spot she had held for 186 weeks and then taking the women's title in a thrilling 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Karolina Pliskova. It was her second Grand Slam of the year after winning in Melbourne in February.
By Keith Prowse