Jamie Murray has apologised to Coco Gauff after forgetting about the American while discussing his main challengers for the Australian Open title. Gauff is one of eight women into the quarter-finals and the third seed takes on Elina Svitolina, the 12th seed, in the last eight on Tuesday. The American is looking to match her best ever performance at this Grand Slam after reaching the semi-finals in 2024.

But doubles great Murray, the brother of Sir Andy Murray, overlooked the 21-year-old French Open champion while assessing the prime contenders for the title this week. World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka, a two-time winner in Melbourne already, is among the favourites alongside second seed Iga Swiatek, who has won six Slams but never this one. Asked if Jessica Pegula is a dark horse, Murray said on TNT Sports: “I don’t know. For me, maybe I’m wrong, with the men’s game [Jannik] Sinner and [Carlos] Alcaraz are just on a different level as they prove with all their results.

“I think Sabalenka and Swiatek have basically done the same over the last couple of years, maybe not quite as dominant. But it’s hard for me to look past them. I think [Elena] Rybakina has a good shot but just with the firepower that Sabalenka possesses, I think…”

Tim Henman then interjected to remind Murray of his prediction, that American fourth seed Amanda Anisimova could go all the way. Murray replied: “You’re all in for her! You’re on your own there Tim.”

A few minutes later while scanning the order of play for Tuesday, Murray was reminded by TNT host Laura Robson that he did not bring up two-time Grand Slam winner Gauff. She said: “You maybe forgot Coco Gauff in those names that you mentioned a few minutes ago…”

To which Murray replied: “I did forget Coco Gauff yeah, I did forget her. I apologise Coco. Svitolina played an amazing match the other night against [Mirra] Andreeva. It’ll be interesting to see if she can bring that performance to the court again.

“Coco, we know, is such a great competitor. Such a good mover around there. Obviously bigger game, bigger serve than Svitolina, has that option to get cheaper points. It will be an interesting match.

“I guess Coco will start as favourite but Svitolina very experienced and is playing some good ball.” Gauff has seen off Kamilla Rakhimova, Olga Danilovic, Hailey Baptiste and Karolina Muchova to reach this stage.

And the world No.3 insisted yesterday she loves the second week of Slams because of how fiercely competitive they are. She said: “I think it’s more fun. I feel like with each match you start to relax a little bit more. But also, as you keep going, usually the ranking of the opponent gets higher, so the matches should be a bit tougher, which they have been.

“But I definitely think it’s more fun just because you’re in great battles, and also just being here in Australia, I think it’s the real opportunity to show where your game is.

“Yes, we play warm-up tournaments, but Grand Slams is where everyone kind of tries to peak at. So you expect to play the peak version of every player. I think it’s just a fun challenge.”