OLYMPICS LONDON 2012: Murray and Robson settle for silver

By James Toney, Sportsbeat, at Wimbledon

ANDY Murray and Laura Robson settled for mixed doubles silver after losing a tense tie-break at Wimbledon.

SILVER: Great Britain tennis players Andy Murray and Laura Robson settled for silver in the mixed doubles event, after the Scot had earlier won singles gold

The British duo lost 2-6, 6-3, 10-8 to Belarus pair Victoria Azarenka and Max Mirnyi, who celebrated wildly after winning on Centre Court.

Murray was clearly buzzing from his straight sets win over Roger Federer and he and partner Robson, who had watched much of his singles match from the players' box, dominated their rivals in a one-sided first set.

Some raised eyebrows when Robson, the British number three, was selected to partner Murray ahead of British number one Heather Watson - not least Watson herself.

But the pair have a strong chemistry, demonstrated by their recent performances at the Hopman Cup, and Murray was thought to have been involved strongly in the decision.

They raced into an early first set lead with both Murray and Robson ruthless at the net to repeatedly expose their rivals and closed out the set in exactly 30 minutes.

But Azarenka, who won bronze in the women's singles, and doubles specialist Mirnyi dragged themselves back into the match in a much improved second set, which they wrapped up even quicker to force a tie-break decider.

Frustration was now starting to show for a tired Murray, drained by his earlier physical, although more likely mental, exertions against Federer.

But a fired-up crowd cheered every point with more excitement than they had in the earlier singles final, with the race to ten points tense throughout.

It lasted ten minutes but mistakes at critical times were enough to secure the Belarus pair gold and force Murray and Robson to settle for silver.

© Sportsbeat 2012