Jamie Murray's Davis Cup preparations in Chile were ended today in a closely fought semi-final at the ATP event in Vina del Mar.

The Scot and his Ecuadorian partner Nicolas Lapentti lost 4-6 6-7(5) against the 4th seeds from Argentina, Jose Acasuso and Sebastian Prieto.

The pair were broken in the first game of the first set before the Argentine held to go 2-0 up. The set then went with serve as Prieto served out the set to give the Argentinians a set lead.

In the second set Murray and Lapentti broke to love in the second game but were broken in the very next game. The Argentines then held for 2-2. This pattern was then repeated all over again: Jamie holding serve, then breaking to love, Lapentti's serve being broken and then the other team hold serve.

Although there wasn't any breaks of serve for the rest of the set Murray and Lapentti did have a break, and set, point at 6-5 to take the match into a match deciding tie-break. In the tie-break, despite being 1-3 down, Acasuso and Prieto held their nerve to take take the match.

Jamie will now head to Buenos Aires with the rest of the GB team, buoyed up by the fact it was one of his best ever tournaments on clay and his doubles partner for the tie, Hutchins, making the quarter-final in Vina del Mar.

why hasnt jamie played with an british player,it would have been a good preperation for the davis cup...

Combined ranking wasn't high enough I believe.