Jamie Murray narrowly missed out on breaking the British record in the Open era as he and his partner, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, were beaten 5-7, 6-4, 10-1 by Barbora Krejcikova and Nikola Mektic in the Australian Open mixed doubles final.

Although he had arrived in Melbourne without the faintest idea of his place in British tennis history, Murray had been chasing his eighth overall slam title – he is currently level with Virginia Wade – his sixth mixed doubles crown and a third alongside Mattek-Sands. Instead, he and his partner were forced to smile through the frustration as a match that had started so promisingly slipped away in a flash, ending at the stroke of midnight.

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“The first time Beth’s been lost for words,” said Murray after the American delegated the runners-up speech to him. “We’ve fought hard enough. It’s always fun whenever we take the court; we’ve had a lot of success but most of all a lot of fun and I hope it continues for many more years.”

Between his court awareness, reflexes and magical touches around the net, Murray’s doubles prowess has afforded him a superstar cast of partners throughout his career. He won his first slam at Wimbledon in 2007 alongside Jelena Jankovic, reached the 2018 Wimbledon final with Victoria Azarenka and his wildly successful partnership with 25-times slam champion Martina Hingis brought him titles at Wimbledon and the US Open in 2017.

Few have matched the productivity of his partnership with Mattek-Sands, 34, a solid singles player who found her calling in doubles later on and has racked up nine doubles slam titles since 2015. Mattek-Sands marches around the court in trademark black knee length socks and infinite shades of pink, and her ceaselessly aggressive ball striking and net rushing presents the same flair as her attire, but consistency is often a problem. On Saturday both players were too erratic against a solid Croatian-Czech duo that gave away nothing.

The victory marks a first slam title for Croatia’s Mektic, ranked 22nd in doubles, and a fourth overall slam for former WTA doubles No 1 Krejcikova, of the Czech Republic, who successfully defended the 2019 title she won with Rajeev Ram of the United States.

On Sunday, Ram will partner Joe Salisbury in the men’s doubles final and Salisbury will be gunning to become the first British slam champion since Murray when they face the Australian wildcards Max Purcell and Luke Saville. Salisbury, 27, was ranked outside the top 100 until 2018 but the 11th seeds will have an enormous opportunity as they take on the surprise finalists.

On Saturday, Britain’s Andy Lapthorne was beaten 6-0, 6-4 by Dylan Alcott of Australia in the quad wheelchair singles final. Alcott, who secured his sixth straight Australian Open title and 10th overall, has become a home favourite. He cried as he revealed that with his team they had pledged $800 for each of his 41 aces during the tournament for people with a disability hurt by the bushfires, taking his total donation to $40,000.