THE gentlemen's doubles final was into the start of its second set by the time a lean figure dressed in a green zipper and navy blue cap quietly took a seat in the Centre Court stands.

The first the elder Murray sibling was aware of his brother Andy's presence was when the 28-year-old abandoned any pretence of remaining incognito and began enthusiastically screaming out his support.

"I didn't know he was coming until I heard him shouting," said Jamie. "He was shouting all the time. Just encouragement and it was cool. It was nice to see him out there supporting me."

Unfortunately, for all of the voluble backing he received from his younger brother, there was only a double dose of disappointment for the Murray clan at the business end of this year's Wimbledon.

Jamie's hopes of becoming the first British winner of both the mixed and men's doubles titles at SW19 since Leslie Godfree in 1926 were dashed by a 7-6 (7/5), 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands and Horia Tecau of Romania. It wasn't the ending another famous spectator, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, can have been hoping for.

As disappointed as they were, this remained an excellent tournament for the No 13 seeds, who pick up a cheque for £85,000 each and who now appear set for a strong run in the US hard-court swing.

First, though, for both Murray brothers is Great Britain's Davis Cup quarter-final tie against France, where Jamie will almost certainly partner Dom Inglot in the potentially crucial Saturday doubles rubber. He said that he and Andy would be able to pick themselves up from their dual disappointment with a little bit of help from their friends.

"We'll be around a lot of guys, a lot of our friends, which will make it easy," said Jamie. "I am looking forward to getting back with the team again. We had a good time last time, there were a lot of happy memories last time. Hopefully we create some more next week."

While Murray and his Australian partner John Peers were right in this match throughout and had sufficient chances to take the first set, by the end this was something of an action replay of events in the semi-final of the singles on Friday night. Rojer, a friend of Andy Murray's from Miami who received an invite to the Scot's recent wedding, and his pal Tecau put in the kind of serving performance which a certain Roger might even have been proud of. In that third set, they got a whopping 90 per cent of their first serves into play. Godfree, incidentally, also played in the very first match after Centre Court opened in 1922 but his old stomping ground was well-nigh deserted when the players walked out, most spectators presumably having gone in search of refreshments following the conclusion of the women's final and presentation ceremony.

It made for a surreal atmosphere, but those who were inside were doing their best to support the Scot and his partner and they responded with an energetic start. Some inspired returning from Murray gave his pairing break-point chances on the Tecau serve at 1-1 and the Rojer serve at 2-2 but they couldn't take any. We were quickly into a first-set tie-break, an errant Peers volley giving their opponents the mini-break, before three pieces of inspired retrieving from the Scot and the Aussie from behind the baseline was unable to save them on set point.

The Melbournian would be informed when he came off court that Australia had lost the first Test to England and his day wasn't getting any better any time soon. He lost his serve at the start of the second set, before Andy arrived with his wife Kim in tow. But there was barely a glimmer of a chance on either man's serve in that second set and when Tecau slapped away an overhead which struck Peers on the ankle on set point, Jamie and John had a mountain to climb.

Murray and Peers had twice won in five sets during this tournament and a break of serve in their favour might at any point have changed the momentum of the match, but instead the pattern grimly continued. A costly double fault from Peers at 30-30 was complicit in another break of serve at 4-4 and the No 4 seeds pounced, Tecau becoming the first Romanian winner of a men's doubles title here since Ilie Nastase in the process.

"I guess it's a missed opportunity," said Jamie. "We came to win. We may never have a chance to play a Grand Slam final again. I don't know what's going to happen in the future. We didn't win, and that's that. Moving on, I guess we want to win one. That's our goal. But it's not easy to get to the finals of these tournaments.

"We had a few chances at the start of the match that maybe we could have done a bit better with. But I think after a while they started to serve very well. We got to the final of Wimbledon, which is not so easy to do. I mean, it is my best result in a Grand Slam by quite some distance, I guess. I am sad to lose. But I guess overall it was a positive tournament."

Peers' mood was bad enough before being informed of Australia's cricketing collapse in Cardiff. "I got told that when I walked off the court and I said, 'Well I'm having a good day then'."