Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares power into ATP Finals semis with emphatic win over world No 1 pair

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Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares put their shaky start at the Nitto ATP Finals behind them when they powered into the semi-finals with another decisive victory at London’s 02 Arena.

The Scottish-Brazilian duo took only 73 minutes to defeat the world No 1 pair Brazil’s Marcelo Melo and Poland’s Lukasz Kubot 6-2, 6-4 in their final group match to clinch qualification.

After losing their opener to the Bryan brothers, world No 4 partnership Murray and Soares appear to be running into form at the most opportune time after their demolition on Wednesday of Ivan Dodig and Marcel Granollers.

Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares put their shaky start at the Nitto ATP Finals behind them

The Scottish-Brazilian defeated the world No 1 pair Marcelo Melo and Lukasz Kubot 6-2, 6-4

Sunday evening they will face defending champions John Peers and Henri Kontinen, with Murray a former long-term partner of the Australian. A win would give Murray his first appearance in the final of this event, where his brother was victorious a year ago.

The match was off a sudden death nature as victory would put them top of the group while defeat would have put them straight out.

They got off to the ideal start when Melo double faulted at deuce to give them an early break, and then romped away to take the first set in 32 minutes. But there was a setback at 3-1 in the second when Murray double faulted on the deciding deuce point to hand the break back.

Soares then needed to save a break point on his next service game before Melo was broken again at 5-4 on the deuce point by an excellent return from Soares that put them through.

A win in the semis would give Murray his first appearance in the final of the ATP Finals