The Murray family's disappointing day on Centre Court continued late on Friday evening when elder brother Jamie and his American partner Liezel Huber capitulated in their mixed doubles semi-final.
Murray senior, who has been a voluble supporter of his brother throughout the singles tournament, has had something of a lean year on the doubles circuit, but was hoping for a repeat of his winning performance of 2007 when he partnered Jelena Jankovic in front of a sparse Centre Court crowd.
The unseeded pair lost 6-2, 7-5 to ninth seeds Mark Knowles, of the Bahamas, and Germany's Anna-Lena Groenefeld. Huber twice dropped her serve and Murray was broken to love in the fourth game as the British-American pair went a set down.
They were more competitive in the second set, which remained on serve until Murray was broken in the ninth game.
Knowles was broken for the first time as he served for the match but Groenefeld made no mistake as she set up a meeting in Sunday's final with India's Leander Paes and Zimbabwean Cara Black, who gained a 6-4, 6-4 win over Brazil's Andre Sa and Japan's Ai Sugiyama in the firstsemi-final.
Knowles, now 37, has fashioned a lucrative career in the unfashionable doubles side of the game, and Murray has been determined to follow his example. But despite their show of resistance in the second set, Murray and Huber were unable to stem the tide and offer British fans any consolation.
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