ANDY Murray said he and Jamie are each other's No 1 fans after his big brother left him playing catch-up in the race to be top of the charts at Christmas in their chosen profession. While the World's No 1 singles player still has to outperform Novak Djokovic at the ATP World Tour Finals this week to be crowned year-end No 1, Jamie and his partner Bruno Soares took an unassailable lead in the combined doubles rankings when the Scot's former partner John Peers and Henri Kontinen defeated their nearest rivals Nicolas Mahut and Pierre Hugues Herbert of France. Andy, who also maintained his perfect record from his three group matches by dismantling US Open champion Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 6-2, feels the pair have come a long way from their teenage years in Dunblane where they used to battle it out at all manner of sports.

"We obviously used to play against each other all of the time pretty much until we were like 12 to 14," said Andy. "That was when we went our separate paths really. Jamie went down to Cambridge for nine months or so. Obviously he went off to Paris, and I went off to Spain when I was 15. Kind of between 12 and then 17 and 18 we didn't spend loads of time together. But before then, we were on the court together. Pretty much every time we went to practice or play tennis, it was together. Even though we played probably four hours a week up to that point. It wasn't like loads. But we did play golf together. We played squash together, table tennis. We were always competing against each other from a young age.

"Now we obviously don't," added the Scot, who now faces Milos Raonic in the last four and the winner of Novak Djokovic and Kei Nishikori. "I think we're probably each other's biggest fans. It's really special to get to watch what he's achieved in the biggest competitions in the sport. Neither of us ever would have expected this when we were growing up so we need to try and enjoy it."

"It was exciting, but a strange way to do it in the end," said Jamie, after learning he was to be the year-end No 1. "We had a great year, we didn't win loads of tournaments but we won the right ones."

Peers joked that he would accept a beer as a down payment for services rendered but hopes to still be around to take the Scottish/Brazilian pair down on finals day. "Hopefully they grab me a drink but at the end of the day it didn't come down to our match today," said Peers. "It is over a lot of matches over the years, ours just happened to be the last one which tipped it over the edge. So he doesn't owe me one."