JAMIE Murray said his thoughts were with his little brother Andy after the senior partner in this extraordinary Scottish family moved one step closer to a repeat of his famous 2007 mixed doubles win here. The 31-year-old and his illustrious partner Martina Hingis enjoyed the kind of relaxed and stress-free outing on Centre Court which the wounded singles World No 1 could only have dreamed of as they overcame Scotland’s Jocelyn Rae and her Liverpudlian partner Ken Skupski by a 6-4, 6-4 scoreline to book a place in the semi-finals, a decade on from his triumph in this competition with his Serbian partner Jelena Jankovic. Should they go on to reach the final, whoever they meet there is likely to have an equally familiar feel, with Jamie’s doubles partner Bruno Soares and his Russian partner Elena Vesnina meeting last year’s winners Heather Watson and Henri Kontinen of Finland in the other semi-final.

As pleased as they both clearly are with how this doubles dream team is progressing - it was 17-time Grand Slam winner Hingis who instigated a partnership, who were a break up early in both sets and never troubled on their own serve - Jamie spoke of the sadness he had felt at seeing his brother limited by that hip problem in his singles quarter final against Sam Querrey and said the priority now was getting whatever treatment he requires to get himself back to his best. “It was obviously sad to see him like that, the last 45 minutes to an hour of the match,” said Jamie. “It is your brother, you don’t like seeing him in pain obviously and you could kind of tell that he wasn’t going to get through the match. It was difficult but this is sport, people get injured. Unfortunately for him it [the hip problem] came at a huge time for him. I just hope he can get the necessary treatment, diagnosis, whatever and come back stronger than before.

“I messaged him last night, just to say ‘bad luck’ and ‘how are you?’” the 31-year-old added. “He was obviously disappointed to lose but he has been battling the last couple of weeks with his hip. I just assume it got worse and worse. He fought as hard as he could to stay around the tournament as long as he could. But the most important thing is to get him back on the court feeling 100%.”

While Jamie is as professional in his outlook now as anyone on the tour, he is on record as saying he could never do the hard physical work-outs his brother endures. Perhaps that is why he hasn’t succumbed to so many niggles. “Me personally not so much but he is doing a lot more running around a tennis court than I am,” said Jamie. “I am sure it is cumulative. There has probably been a build up over the last seven to ten years of his career. The matches he has played, the conditions he has played in, what he has put his body through. Of course as you get older those things are going to happen.”

Andy, missing from SW19 in 2007 with a wrist problem, famously watched on incognito from the Five Live commentary box as Jamie became the first member of the family to own a Wimbledon title. He isn’t sure whether his brother will come back should he makes it back to Saturday’s showpiece again. “Maybe he won’t want to be sitting down for that length of time.”