Murray/Venus Clinch Zhuhai Crown, Boost Turin Hopes

Jamie Murray and Michael Venus continued their impressive season on Tuesday when they captured their fourth tour-level title together at the Huafa Properties Zhuhai Championships.

The second seeds overcame third seeds Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 22 minutes to triumph at the Chinese ATP 250 hard-court event.

Murray and Venus, who dropped just one set en route to the title, saved all 13 break points they faced in the final, holding their nerve in the key stages to improve to 38-19 as a team in 2023.

The British-Kiwi pair is up three spots to ninth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings on 3,325 points. They are just 15 points behind eighth-placed Lammons and Withrow. Murray and Venus will aim to further boost their Nitto ATP Finals qualification chances when they compete in Astana this week.

“We know we need big results until the end of the year,” Murray said. “We know we need to win a lot of matches by the end of the year and this helps for sure. We’ve got plenty more big events to play until the end of the year that we will try to do well in to give yourselves the best chance of getting to Turin.”

Murray and Venus have improved to 3-2 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series against Lammons and Withrow, while they have now won four trophies together this year, also triumphing in Dallas, Banja Luka and Geneva.

Americans Lammons and Withrow were chasing their fourth title of the season. They are 43-22 in 2023.