Hamburg Open 2015: Doubles glory for Jamie Murray

Murray and Peers, who were playing their first tournament since losing to Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau in the Wimbledon final last month

Jamie Murray, left, with doubles partner John Peers after their victory in Germany (EPA)

Jamie Murray and John Peers followed up their run to the Wimbledon final by recording their biggest victory since they joined forces two years ago to win the Hamburg clay-court doubles title.

The Scot and the Australian, whose five previous titles had been in World Tour 250 events, claimed their first prize at 500 level by beating the Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 2-6, 6-3, 10-8.

Murray and Peers, who were playing their first tournament since losing to Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau in the Wimbledon final last month, made a slow start but recovered to win after 75 minutes.

“We did well to come back because we were getting our butt kicked for a while there,” Murray told the ATP’s official website. “But we hung in there and started to play a lot better in the second and make more returns. We’re really excited to win. It’s a big tournament win for us. We’re starting to do a lot better in the bigger events this year.”

The victory strengthened the chances of Murray and Peers making the field for the end-of-year Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London. The eight places in the doubles field go to the pairs who have won the most ranking points during the calendar year.

Murray and Peers are in fifth place on the list, well clear of the pair in sixth position. Murray is also set to climb several places in today’s updated world rankings list from his current career-best position at No 20.

Peers said: “On top of that good performance at Wimbledon, it’s really good to keep it going and bounce back. It’s definitely a good feeling. We’re going to be taking a lot of confidence from the last month and a half.”

Another Scot, Colin Fleming, reached the doubles final in Atlanta before losing to Bob and Mike Bryan. The American twins beat Fleming and Luxembourg’s Gilles Müller 4-6, 7-6, 10-4.

Rafael Nadal won the singles title in Hamburg, beating Fabio Fognini 7-5, 7-5 in the final. It was his biggest victory since he won the French Open 14 months ago. Fognini had beaten Nadal twice earlier in the year and pushed the Spaniard hard throughout. It took Nadal 77 minutes to win the first set and he won the second only after breaking Fognini when the Italian served at 5-4.

Andy Murray is the top seed in Washington this week but will not play his first match until Wednesday. After a first-round bye he faces Teymuraz Gabashvili or Benjamim Becker. Kei Nishikori is the second seed.

In the women’s event in Washington, Britain’s Naomi Broady, the world No 213, qualified for the main draw of a tournament on the WTA tour for the first time this year when she beat the Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich, the world No 121. Broady, who won 6-3, 6-3, had beaten France’s Stéphanie Foretz, the world No 184, in the first round of qualifying.