By Georgia Grimond, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Playing in only their third event together, Bruno Soares, from Belo Horizonte, and Jamie Murray, from Scotland, are proving to be a formidable team. The pair, who are ranked seventh in the world, advanced yesterday, January 27th, to the finals of the Australian Open tournament in Melbourne Park.
They beat Frenchmen Adrian Mannarino and Lucas Pouille by two sets to love, 6-3, 6-1, in less than an hour. Next they will play Daniel Nestor of Canada and Radek Stepamek of the Czech Republic in a fight for the title on Saturday, January 30th.
Murray, brother of Andy, the world number two, broke with his previous doubles partner, John Peers, at the end of last season and formed partnership with the Brazilian. So far together they have won ten out of the eleven matches they have played, already scooping the International title in Sydney earlier this month.
“To go out there and win 6-3, 6-1 gives us extra confidence for the final,” said Soares. “We cannot ask for anything more. We played almost a perfect match.”
“We came here feeling good, playing seven matches and winning one title. The conditions in Sydney are similar to Melbourne so we had a good feeling about this week. We knew we could do well. I hope we can do one more” Soares added.
In the mixed doubles competition, Soares and his partner, Russian Elena Vesnina, already beat Murray and Katarina Srebotnik from Slovenia by two sets to love in 56 minutes. Soares and Vesnina will play Croatian Ivan Dodig and Indian Sania Mirza in the mixed doubles semifinal on Friday January 29th.