Murray suffers heartbreak in bid for Olympic tennis 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.

"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.

Meanwhile in the men's singles the battle to challenge overwhelming favourite Novak Djokovic is hotting up in Tokyo, with the Serbian – a 20-time Grand Slam winner – looking to make history in Japan.

Second seed Daniil Medvedev advanced to the quarter-finals after he saw off Italy's Fabio Fognini in three sets, and he'll now face Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain after he saw off Dominik Koepfer in two.

Djokovic takes on Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the third round on Wednesday as he continues his bid for the first ever 'Golden Slam' – victories in all four Grand Slams and the Olympics in a calendar year.

Britain's Liam Broady takes on Frenchman Jeremy Chardy later on Wednesday.

In the women's singles, Ukraine's fourth seed Elina Svitolina is through to the semi-finals after beating Italy's Camila Giorgi.

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